Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1313608
Worcester Business Journal 27 D I V E R S I T Y & I N C L U S I O N F O C U S Together we can make a difference. Together we can end racial inequity. Partnering with our local community to build an equitable and inclusive community. 49 Church St. • Whitinsville, MA 01588 • www.unibank.com 800.578.4270 • Member FDIC/Member DIF Equal Housing Lender WBJ diversity ad.qxp_Layout 1 9/30/20 3:50 PM Page 1 O ne of the greatest honors of my life was spending time with Archbishop Desmond Tutu prior to his retirement. An advocate for peace, forgiveness, racial harmony, democracy and justice, Archbishop Tutu serves as a model in my life and I find his words to be inspirational, a call to be a better person, and provide comfort and hope about society. Isn't that what we need at this time? Since meeting at Saint John's – I have been forever touched by his concept of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the humble recognition of ourselves in relationship with others, and our ability to embrace, and be able to say to others that "you have gifts that I don't have, and I have gifts that you don't have – and when we recognize those realities together we can be fully human and live in harmony allowing all of us to prosper." Desmond Tutu writes, "A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." Ubuntu [...] speaks of the very essence of being human. [We] say [...] "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours." We belong in a bundle of life. We say, "A person is a person through other persons." At UniBank we strive as best we can (always trying to be better) to live out that sense of Ubuntu both within our company and within the communities we serve. I conclude with a poignant message from Desmond Tutu: "I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in the world will never end. I want to share with you my faith and my understanding that this suffering can be transformed and redeemed. There is no such thing as a totally hopeless case. Our God is an expert at dealing with chaos, with brokenness, with all the worst that we can imagine. God created order out of disorder, cosmos out of chaos, and God can do so always, can do so now--in our personal lives and in our lives as nations, globally. ... Indeed, God is transforming the world now--through us-- because God loves us." Michael Welch, CEO, UniBank UNIBANK: Together We Can! Together We Will! W Michael Welch "e essence of being human is being able to co-exist. at is how God intended it to be." – Desmond Tutu Special Sponsored Section