A letter from the President of LSS
I have been struck, lately, with the number of
references to building, repairing, and healing I have encountered in my reading and
listening.
First, a preacher of my acquaintance used in her
sermon a section from the prophet Isaiah, who called on his hearers to be the
"repairers of the streets, the builders of the city."
Then, some weeks later, I ran across the text of the
speech South African President Nelson Mandela made at his inauguration. I was struck with
what a powerful statement it was. He recounted the generations of apartheid, hatred, and
struggle his nation endured. Instead of dwelling on bitterness and anger, as one might
have expected, he concluded with the stirring declaration, "The time to build is upon
us."
More recently, an LSS staff colleague forwarded to
me a magazine article about former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. In his writing Cuomo
often uses the Hebrew phrase tikkun olam, which carries the idea of building, or healing,
the world. "If government, if politics, is the science of a people trying to figure
how to rule their environment and their own conduct," Cuomo wrote in the article,
"you should start with the principle that we are here (on earth) to make our society
better."
Weighing the questions of who we are, or why we do
what we do, isn’t just something for individuals to do. Organizations, as well, need
to have a clear understanding of their reason to be, and their mission.
Every two years LSS undertakes an inventory of our
programs and services, our relationships in the community, and our dreams and hopes for
our mission and for the people we serve—all in an effort to sharpen our understanding
of who we are, and why we do what we do. Much of that inventory is incorporated in the
document you are holding in your hands, our public policy agenda.
This agenda reflects our understanding that the
justification for LSS’s existence and mission goes well beyond ourselves. The
justification is tikkun olam. Our mission, which we undertake in response to God’s
call to us, is to work to build a greater good for—to bring a measure of healing
to—all of God’s people.
The Eighty-first Legislature has begun its work
under a new governor and new administration, and a new legislative balance of power. The
106th Congress began its session with several new leaders and a new agenda. America today
lives in a new era of welfare reform and related social policy. Everywhere, there seems to
be a new awareness of the importance of city and community. Both a new millenium and a new
century are imminent.
At LSS we relish this renewed opportunity to engage
the Legislature and the Congress, the Governor and President and their Administrations,
our many partners in local government, individuals and congregations in the Lutheran
community (and beyond), and others in the nonprofit and profit sector, in tikkun olam, the
on-going work of building a more just and peaceful society for all.
In January 1999 the words of President Nelson
Mandela seem right to me. The time to build is upon us.
MARK A. PETERSON, President/CEO
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota
