Editor’s note: Have something on your mind? “Community Voices” is the place to let Milwaukee hear what you have to say. To be considered, we need your name, email address and phone number for verification. Please email your submissions to [email protected]. First of two parts. Without a doubt, Milwaukee has its share of problems. Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing! But we also have so much to be thankful for. With this in mind, we asked residents who have contributed to our Community Voices feature: “What is a person, project, organization, institution or movement that you are thankful for that’s making an impact in Milwaukee?” Portia Cobb is a professor at UW-Milwaukee and filmmaker and wrote “How questioning a simple checkout procedure led to complex questions of racial profiling and ‘pent up anger against whites.’” The question of gratitude is always a humbling one. It silences all the inner chatter about the outside forces in our daily comings and goings, where reflection is often difficult to wrangle. This year has been one of highs and lows, but by nature I feel fortunate to have had the support of members of an expanding community help me navigate and stay the course of good. It is often easier to be negative and add to the negative than it is to create positive within experiences that have been negative. Most recently I have been overwhelmed with gratitude for neighbors in a neighborhood where I have at times felt estranged. When I was t-boned by a reckless and willful driver who ignored a stop sign, totaled my vehicle and then took off, those very “strangers” in my own neighborhood came to my aid, as witnesses. I found myself shedding some of the stereotypes I realized I held of them. Similarly, after suffering a situation of profiling earlier in the year, I have found allies in “strangers” and those who are working for the good in our city by volunteering their time and hearts to create safe spaces for discussions toward resolution and sustainable transformation toward the good in our “good city.” The Buddhist teachings that I have embraced since my 20s continue to help me reset my own impulses to spin out. These teachings have reminded me to observe my own mind and actions; and to realize deeply that causes and effects in my life are not separate from every person I meet and encounter in my environment and community. It helps me realize with deep reflection that I am to embrace all circumstances as an opportunity to expand my lesser self, which will then serve to change things in my environment that cause harm. I have become appreciative of those within our city — too many to name — who have selflessly taken action to promote the essence of goodness and equity for all. I am deeply appreciative of students, of faculty, of artists, of the architects of safety and inclusivity that we all desire. I am thankful for life. I am learning with each season in my life that friends, associates, strangers and the community spaces we share on this planet are not coincidental or separate from me. I have tremendous gratitude for my dog Tico, who teaches me how to be better at being a human being. He connects me to others and to the beautiful natural spaces within Milwaukee that I have often taken for granted. Renee Lynn Glembin is a lifelong Milwaukee resident, writer, teacher and social justice advocate who recently wrote “The loss of Strauss Brands is a win for Century City residents.” I am thankful for Jocelyn Mason-Saffold, community outreach and education coordinator of SE-WI Planned Parenthood. I met Jocelyn in 2016 at the ACLU Youth Social Justice Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Because I work with teenagers, I know that there is a startling amount of misinformation among them about sexual health and identity. So, I invited Jocelyn to come to my classroom to speak to my junior and senior high school students about creating and maintaining healthy relationships, taking care of themselves and understanding the gender spectrum. Jocelyn is a natural, dynamic and authentic classroom presenter and she is unabashedly unafraid to talk about subjects that would make most of us blush. The kids instantly feel at ease with her as she answers all their questions and empowers them with knowledge and resources. Jocelyn has come to my classroom a few times a year since then, even though every year Planned Parenthood, which provides valuable low cost reproductive health care and cancer screenings to thousands of women, has its budget slashed.