With a sincere apology to the author of classic literary lines, I quote and mildly edit the famed British preacher and metaphysical poet, Dr. John Donne. He wrote: “No [one] is an island entire unto itself; everyone is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. Therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for you.”

First, let me say I do not completely agree with the learned Dr. Donne. He may well have missed the mark on this point. Indeed, we are islands, entire unto ourselves. We are alone in our outlooks and feelings. We remain quiet for fear others will disagree with us and not like us. Confucius once said: “'Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all possible doubt.” But that is a topic for another day. Let's assume today that Dr. Donne is completely correct.

Dr. Donne's theory is that we are all connected to each other like a great spider web, so that when it is touched at any point it shudders throughout. Over the last year the city of Greensboro mourned the loss of Emily and Richardson Preyer, Dr. Alex Spears, Mayor Vic Nussbaum and others. These have been giants in our community –“truly the mighty have fallen.” Whether or not people knew them the city paused to mourn their passing much as the world mourned the loss of Princess Di and Mother Theresa, and few if any of us knew these two women. We are indeed connected to one another. The death of any one of us diminishes us all just a bit.

Because of our need to be connected, to be in a network, we tend to join groups. A story in the News and Observer recently caught my attention. It was about a Jacksonville, N.C., man who was struck by lightening in 1969. He organized a club known as “Lightning Strike and Electric Shock Survivors International.” He is quoted in the article as saying, “It's not a job, it's my life.” “My Life?” Are you kidding me? Only in America.

Humans have an unexplainable need to form groups. You would think that gender and race would be enough. But no, we further define ourselves by social standing, occupations, sports teams, high school and college classes, sororities and fraternities. Regardless of what has happened to you, you can start a support group for it: Alcoholics Anonymous, Nicotine Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Compulsive Sex Anonymous (I don't know what that is and I am afraid to check their Web site).

Once again groups are aligning themselves throughout our city under the banner of Proponents of FedEx or Opponents of FedEx. We are either Pro baseball or anti baseball. Chattanooga, Tenn., is considered to be a model of what we should become or what we should not become.

I, along with 166 others, took a trip to Chattanooga March 5, 2001. Our reactions were many, but amazing golden threads run through all the hundreds of observations that have been written. Let me point to three:

1. “They have a river, we do not.” Doesn't matter; the river is not the important thing. The important thing is they had an attitude adjustment. They determined that it did not matter what the obstacles were, they were going to succeed. And succeed they did. Attitude yields energy and hustle. Hustle wins when the people are determined to win. They broke ground in Chattanooga and the victories began to roll. We are going to have an attitude adjustment in Greensboro. We will see a “Can do – will do – DID IT!” state of mind. We will break ground in Greensboro.

2. “Process is the promise.” At Greensboro College I venture to say few members of the faculty or staff have disagreed with ultimate decisions I have made; or if they did disagree, they kept it to themselves. But they have disagreed often and loudly with the process I may have followed to make my decision. I did not consult with this or that group or committee; I did not give written notice significantly in advance; I did not bow before the appropriate academic Gods and Goddesses.

   To create the results we want for Greensboro, we will have to follow a process that reaches out to all. We are not an authoritarian community. We are a populist community. The process we follow will determine our success. One hundred sixty-eight people took that trip. Already several hundred more are actively working on one of six task forces that have been established:

   (1.) Attraction of Young Professionals (cochaired by Randall Kaplan, Van King)
   (2.) Enhancing Brand Image (cochaired by Frank Mascia, Martin Orlowsky)
   (3.) Entrepreneurism and Small Business (chaired by Lanty Smith, Dennis Quaintance, Lee Loyd)
   (4.) Recruitment and Enhancement of Business (chaired by Mackey McDonald, David Norbury, Steve Showfety)
   (5.) Assisting Public Schools (cochaired by David Stonecipher, Chuck McQueary)
   (6.) Center City Project (TBA.)

   They broke ground in Chattanooga. We will break ground in Greensboro.

3. “Public – Private partnerships created their successes.” There are so many examples: The Aquarium, the River Walk, the Pedestrian Bridge and the baseball stadium. And then there are the electric buses, which run every five minutes and are free to ride. The public sector came together with the private sector and great things were accomplished. We are light years ahead on this score. We are beginning with so much more than a choo-choo in a slapstick musical comedy. We already have six foundations in this city, and they are putting large dollars behind this; we had representatives of all levels of local and state government together on that trip talking about how to get it done. We had citizens that resembled the “rainbow coalition” in color, faith commitments and neighborhoods. The resolve is there. We are not talking about fixing potholes here; we are talking about putting stars in the city's crown. They broke ground in Chattanooga. We will break ground in Greensboro.

Tom Brokaw's book “The Greatest Generation” expresses Brokaw's admiration for a group of Americans who took time out from their lives to go fight a war – WWII. Brokaw says of these brave women and men, that after the war, “They came back home, rebuilt the homeland of their enemies, built this country into the most powerful industrial economy in the history of civilization, stared down communism, took advantage of the GI Bill, spread out across America and built communities and families and schools.” Brokaw adds that they never whined, never whimpered; they never postured in front of the camera and they never asked for attention. In other words, they handled it. They broke ground in Chattanooga. We will break ground in Greensboro.