Thoughts from StreetWIse Chairman Emeritus Pete Kadens

I wonder where I’d be if I had been a minority growing up in an underserved community.

Same me. Same intellect. Same abilities.

I wonder if people would have given me the second and third chances I’ve had in life.

I wonder if I would have seen life as a perpetual sequence of amazing opportunities, one after another.

I wonder if I can truly say “I earned” what I have or did I just inherit the gift of hope and opportunity by the mere fact that I’m seen differently by society than people who grew up in a different ZIP code than I did.

I wonder about how great our world would be if none of this silly stuff like skin color or the numbers you saw on a bank statement mattered but rather what mattered was things like work ethic, how you treated people who could do absolutely nothing for you and the quality of your inner character. I wonder when you and I will be equals.

For too long, for too many, lack of access and opportunity has been a standard operating procedure.

Our divides are force-multiplied and revealed when challenging times fall upon us as they have now.

Now is the time when actions speak louder than words. Now is the time to stop wondering and to start acting.

-StreetWise Chairman Emeritus Pete Kadens

Pete Kadens

Alexandria Maloney