Butts outlines American dream at development conference

Butts

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

Explaining how community development professionals can help weave the fabric of American life, Calvin O. Butts III, the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, gave the keynote address to the Community Development Society, an international group holding its 35th annual conference at Cornell, July 21.

Cornell's Community and Rural Development Institute, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the university's colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Human Ecology organized the meeting.

Butts, who is also president of the State University of New York's The College at Old Westbury on Long Island, began his talk by quoting from the poem "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes. He recited: "I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart/I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars./I am the red man driven from the land,/I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek --/And finding only the same old stupid plan/Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak."

From the poem sprang Butts' theme of reclaiming long-held American dreams, particularly the one annunciated by Martin Luther King Jr., who foresaw a revitalized America. To achieve that revitalization, Butts explained, King spoke to all of America, not just one segment of society. "Martin laid out the dream for us, a blueprint for action of a Promised Land," said Butts. "... Do you know you are the implementers of that dream?"

Reminding his audience that most people are not wealthy, Butts said community development professionals should not fear obtaining funds from the government, but he criticized financial waste because of the war with Iraq. "There are billions and billions of dollars that should be available for community development, but every day there are more Americans dying [in Iraq] and they still haven't caught Sadam," he said.

Butts reminded the 400 society members attending the conference that building a community is not just building an apartment building here and a shopping center there. "Community development is holistic," he said. "It means creating affordable housing, medical facilities, recreational areas and arts facilities."