Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-03-28
Hughes Writes on
South Central Project
1852 4th Ave. So.
Minneapolis, MINI.
March %, 1871.

haLCn ESJ 1o4l.
Editor: just a word TO your
reading public and residents Of the
South Central area of Minneapolis.
The Minneapolis Times Tribune of
March goth, carried a story relat-
ing to the Youth Center located at
2733 Park Ave, in which it pro-
vides food for thought for those not
favorably inclined to the South
Central Community Center project.
Particular concern was expressed
over the leisure time activities Of
the young people who have little to
spend for wholesome recreation and
social life, but were not affected by
Settlement Houses.
This Institution was established
less than year ago in the old w.,
S. Gregory mansion. So successful
has the experiment been that its
sponsors hope to turn over the
Center, lock, stock and barrel, to its
youthful membership for manage
ment and supervision.
A thought arises in my mind that
perplexes me and that is, do those
of US who are interested in our
youth feel that this project now on
foot will be detrimental to them,
will it make unloyal citizens of
them for the future, or do we feel
that just because most of US were
deprived of the many opportunities,
that they must suffer also? l am
quite sure some few think this way,
therefore they cannot entertain any
desire to help financially, or lend
moral support to a program dedi-
Gated to the Youth of the COM
munity.
Many persons have expressed
themselves to the point that if a
Recreationaf Center is opened in
the community, it will lower real
estate values and class the COM
munity as a slum district. Are the
residents of Park Ave. living in a
slum district? l question it. This
is a challenge to mothers and
fathers of the coming generation,
and our sons and daughters believe
that we parents are going to be
liberal minded as possible and help
them to provide and maintain rec
reational, educational and cultured
facilities, also to promote fuller
community understanding between
all peoples. No task to which man
can dedicate himself is more noble,
more inspiring, more worthy of the
utmost conservation and concentra-
ton, than that of helping to build
a better world for the progress of
humanity. "Thou- shalt love thy
neighbor as myself" That Second
Commandment issues directly out
of the first. We belong to each
other, my neighbor and 1, because
we both belong to someone else,
and that someone else is God. That
is the truth about US, and we are
not living according to Gods truth
when it is hidden.
Our neighbor meets US in many
guises and DISCUSSES. He or she
may sit across the family table or
face us across the counter. He
may work for US or we for him. He
may be buyer, seller, debtor; at
tractive or unattractive; friendly
or unfriendly; Negro, Jew, German,
American, Japanese. Whatever he
is, our relation to him is an in
separable part of our relation to
God. If we ask how this neighbor-
love will show itself, the answer is
plain. "The servant shall be the
greatest of ALL" We cannot hire
someone else to do our serving for
us any more than we can hire some
one to do our praying for us.
Men may hire someone to do a
special kind of serving for them,
as when they employ a social work
err or a priest, but that does not
relieve them of their calling as
serving-men. Every human occu-
patton is either a vocation or a
racket" Membership is an in
escapable part of our lives.
The relationships of the family
make or unmake a child. Each Of
us is a member and heir of some
wider community Of lives, a neigh
borhood, town, nation. From that
membership we draw in large
measure the way we think, the
language we speak, the standards