Let's strive to reach the common good as a community

CARE RING

Tchernavia Montgomery is chief executive officer of Care Ring, a health care nonprofit in Charlotte.

On Nov. 1 – his day off – I accompanied my 33-year-old brother to vote for the first time.

A formerly incarcerated person, his right to vote was only recently restored. It was long awaited, as he cast it with both enthusiasm and urgency. While his candidate selections are private, I am proud in that he chose this moment in our nation’s history to contribute towards the future our community, which he is newly a part of.  

However, elections are only one of the many ways in which we can uplift our voices and disrupt democracy.

In the 2018 book, “The Common Good,” Robert Reich explores the contradictions of honor and shame, socialism and capitalism, morality and corruption. It is an inquisitive work challenging our progress toward the pursuit of a universal understanding of our collective obligation toward balancing the needs of those underserved or dispossessed.

I am persistently passionate about community servanthood and systems equitability. Martin Luther King Jr. once expressed, “At the heart of all that civilization has meant and developed is community – the mutual cooperative and voluntary venture of man to assume a semblance of responsibility for his brother.” While poetic in vision, daily we are wrought with convulsive inclinations of hatred and malice towards one another.

Today’s political temperature can be described as nothing short of oppressive heat.

How are we to unify towards the common good if we are so inconveniently divided on what the definition of “good” is?
A timely reminder that poverty and disenfranchisement will not wait for us to decide.

In July, Axios reported that Charlotte moved up a dozen spots to No. 38 in upward mobility among the largest cities in the U.S. Revisiting the 2014 landmark Chetty “Land of Opportunity” study, our region ranked 50th out of 50 for large metropolitan areas for economic mobility, launching a historic investment initiative that would mobilize community organizations in unprecedented ways.

Those of us employed or essentially familiar with our once shameful contrast of our “tale of two cities” story deeply exhaled at the long overdue illumination of the issues plaguing our beloved community, all emanating from historic and contemporary injustices.  

While we are due celebration for our hard fought advancements in recent years in areas such as early childhood education and care, and Medicaid expansion statewide, I caution to not take pause nor be relieved of our commission.

Our community continues to be divided on how to strategically address issues such as homelessness and housing, violence prevention and education. The organization I lead, Care Ring, persists daily in combatting the national maternal child health crisis, especially for women of color whose health are disproportionately impacted.

The alignment of common good’s definition is not easy, especially as it is unhappily married to dollars and cents.

Be that as it may, today, in Mecklenburg County, 2,784 people are experiencing  homelessness. And, despite reductions in residents below the poverty level, 10.5% remain destitute, with over half disproportionately being Black or Hispanic/Latino according to our 2024 Mecklenburg County Pulse Report.

With continued guidance by our friends at Leading on Opportunity and their Opportunity Compass, I am optimistic that our community’s leaders will continue to be compelled to action by the authentic missions and visions of our community-based organizations who remain at the front line to tirelessly serve our most vulnerable neighbors. As leaders, we’ve not the luxury of being distracted or undermined by politics, because again, the barriers those in poverty face do not rest, nor can we. But we are no longer powerless.

For many of us, the pandemic amplified our voices, resulting in new allies helping to rally around our causes with much needed resources.

The problems that remain are not isolated. Thus, the “good” in which we apply to extinguish must be common to us all. I often brag on Care Ring’s “purple” board of directors, who are very much divided in political affiliation and diverse in every sense. But a board nonetheless that has organically assumed a collective identity in their intention to stand united against the enemy that is health inequity and disproportionality.

As we acknowledge this critical season in our country’s history, let us all be a stakeholder in the common good and refuse to be silent at the known evils and inhumanities that exist.

Let us fundamentally strive to create a better community for all – one that is free, just, inclusive and of peace. Then, and only then, may we rest.

Tchernavia Montgomery is CEO of Care Ring, a health care nonprofit in Charlotte.

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