For two months, there was a discussion in our community about opening a men’s homeless shelter. The building in which the shelter would be open is located exactly where there is the most need in the shelter. However, many people were opposed. In fact, I learned about this discussion from a letter from one of my neighbors who asked everybody to go online and vote against the shelter. Granted, I clicked on the link to the Google form and voter in favor. However, I was still very upset that regardless of socioeconomic background, income or education, the argument stays the same: anywhere but not in our backyard! I read several discussions on NextDoor and attended one more virtual meeting, and time and time again, the “nay” people were the loudest, and their arguments were the same old “property value” and “we already have enough services.”
And then, in her last newsletter, our alderwoman said that the majority voted in favor of the shelter.
Although I am happy with this outcome, it makes me wonder whether people avoided publically expressing their “in favor,” or those who were against it were louder, not more numerous.
My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future.
I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life.
As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.
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Hettie's Reflections 