Seattle Can Help Lead the Healing

Dear Mayor Murray,

Since 1957 our city has built sister city relationships with international communities around the world with the number now standing at twenty-one. 

From Galway, Ireland and Haiphong, Vietnam, to Kobe, Japan and Cebu, Philippines, we’ve created affiliations with other communities to learn, create good will, trade, and in the case of Be’er Sheva, Israel, to “promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation”. 

Although few of us know the specific outcomes of these sister city relationships, we’ll assume on common sense grounds that they build cooperation and commerce that is helpful to both communities.

As we look at the results of this week’s presidential election and the massive disparity in opportunity that divides our country, I suggest it is time to pause international sister city expansion in favor of testing a new, Domestic Sister Cities program. One focused on building understanding, goodwill and economic development with those who did not benefit from the recovery over the last eight years to the extent we did.

What might be accomplished with this new effort? While it’s hard to say, we can start by galvanizing the talent, creativity and passion in our community to reach out to those who feel left behind by an economic recovery that passed them by. Perhaps there are opportunities to leverage our academic and technology leadership to help them develop science and technology education strategies, or to build their entrepreneurial base. Perhaps there is an opportunity to create a workforce connection that would benefit both cities. In return, there is much we can learn from the expertise and experiences of these communities. It's important that this be a mutually beneficially sharing of ideas, not us approaching the relationship as if we have the answers. Until we try there’s no telling what progress can be made.   

If there was ever a time to promote “peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation” it is now, and within our own communities. Whether it be Steubenville, Ohio, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Augusta, Maine or any of dozens of cities who could use a caring sibling, now more than ever we need to reach out to learn and help where we can.  

We have been uniquely blessed with opportunity in our city and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to recall the expression - “to those whom much is given, much is expected”.

It’s time for everyone to step up in the country to heal the divide and Seattle can be a leader by showing other cities the way.  How about we test a new Domestic Sister Cities Program?

I’ll pay my own way.