Gratitude, Reflection and the Road Ahead
Nov 19, 2024
As 2024 winds toward its close, and we consider our place on Dakota and Lakota lands, I share my gratitude and aspirations. I am grateful for all the people willing to do hard things and I strive for our organization to lead the work to reweave the fabric of our divided country.
Allow me to share more about what I mean.
I am grateful to be a member of an incredibly talented and diverse leadership team. With the conviction and courage of our CEO, Jean Taylor, we’ve agreed we are setting our sights on creating the future of public media. Our vision statement guides us: a connected America fueled by trust and understanding. In other words, we are committed to doing our part to weave America together in healthy ways. Leading this work requires each of us to do personal work. We each can expand and deepen our understanding of the very roots of our country, its beauty, and its brutality.
Last month, a small group of MPR | APM leaders, both board and staff, traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Equal Justice Initiative’s museum, memorial and sculpture garden. We also visited Marion and Selma, where we walked the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Next March will mark 60 years since Bloody Sunday, when Civil Rights protestors who crossed the bridge en route to Montgomery were severely beaten and tear gassed by state troopers. Their goal? Securing voting rights for Black people. Something that many of us take for granted today
The trip to Alabama focused on 400 years of African American history from enslavement to mass incarceration. Reconstruction, Jim Crow, red lining, discrimination in banking, criminal justice, education, healthcare and more were brought to life in powerful and painful ways.
I’ve always been interested in American history. I majored in it in college and as a teenager growing up on the East Coast, I walked Boston’s Freedom Trail and went to see the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. I love what these symbols stand for and I know they’re only part of our nation’s foundation. We tend to want to hold up examples of the strength of our democracy and our commitment to it yet deny or minimize those historical and present-day examples of our shortcomings. Going to George Floyd Square in Minneapolis or the Legacy Museum in Montgomery helps us more fully grasp who and what America is. I appreciate Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative creating this opportunity for people to learn more about America. Those stories don’t eradicate the good things; they sit alongside them and together create a more honest framing of who we have been and are today. Holding all of it is essential to becoming who we often say we are.
Our board member Julie Causey was a driver behind this trip and stressed the importance of taking it together. As Julie put it, “The MPR Board of Directors has both an obligation and an opportunity to partner with the executive leadership team and live the mantra that the more we know, the better able we are to advance the future of public media. This trip allowed us to reflect and learn what it will take to live our vision of a connected America fueled by trust and understanding. When we orbit around a deeper understanding of other people's experiences, we are better for it. That is what this trip did for each one of us.”
Taking this trip deepened our individual and collective understanding of the darkness that is part of the American story and our very foundation. It is a version of required reading, encouraging us to live as responsible and informed participants in our democracy.
Yes, it is very heavy and at times painful to confront. And at every step, it reminds us of people's strength and perseverance, grace and determination, courage and kindness.
Good people are doing hard things. That’s always been part of our story. We draw strength knowing we are doing our part to build onto their good, hard work of creating an America that works well for everyone.
Thank you to all of you who care for and support our work, and who count on us to continue to improve, learn, and create our shared future. We can only do it with your generous gifts.
In gratitude,
Duchesne Drew
President, Minnesota Public Radio
About Duchesne Drew
Duchesne Drew is Senior Vice President of American Public Media Group and President of Minnesota Public Radio. In this role, he leads the teams that produce MPR News, The Current, APM Reports and Marketplace. Additionally, he oversees YourClassical MPR as a part of Minnesota Public Radio.