As a recently relocated resident in the Austin, Texas, region, I am wanting to expand the work I was starting in my former area, the I-10 corridor extending from Pensacola, FL, in the middle, extending westward to New Orleans, east to Jax, Fl, and north of Pensacola region to Atlanta, Ga. I am a retired university faculty member/community activist who is concerned about the lack of common bonds, tolerance for diversity, racial and otherwise, and the need for more of a civics minded and civil discourse in the public square, the lack of cross cultural and multicultural focus on the part of residents and the media, much less  the major employers in the region as the US becomes more diverse in its demographics, and the helter skelter of efforts to help those who need jobs, as well as new and recent job seekers who are underemployed, unemployed, or have given up in the current world-wide recession.