[Vision2020] It Takes All Kinds to Help Find the Center

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (April 6, 2007) Moscow-Pullman Daily News -

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HER VIEW: It takes all kinds to help find the center

By Joan Opyr

Why would I be interested in a conference called Finding the Center? I am a
left-wing Democrat. I am a feminist. I am an activist. I have spent the
whole of my adult life campaigning for causes and concerns that are anathema
to many on the right-wing side of the political divide. Why would I want to
seek common ground with conservatives, moderates, and others with whom I
often disagree?

The short answer is that it takes all kinds to make a world. I believe in
diversity, in multiculturalism, and that includes diversity of opinion.
Being tolerant does not mean lying down and letting others walk all over
you, but it does mean making an effort to live in harmony with everyone,
even if that harmony is only agreeing to disagree. Our local community and
the larger world depend on our willingness to do this simple thing, to
extend the olive branch where we can, and to seek commonality wherever it
exists. This does not mean that we give up our values or stop fighting for
our beliefs, but that we recognize that while difference may be frightening,
it doesn't need to be destructive.

Finding the Center is an action-oriented human rights conference that seeks
to instruct, to inspire, to teach and to challenge. Four speakers will come
to the University of Idaho April 12-14 to present four different tracks. All
will focus on how we can serve as positive agents of change within our
communities.

Randie S. Gottlieb, Ed. D., is the founder of UNITYWORKS LLC and co-founder
of the Mona Foundation. She will deliver the keynote address and lead a
discussion track focused on education and the empowerment of women.

Balbir Mathur, the founder of "Trees for Life," which has helped more than
2.5 million people plant more than 30 million trees in developing countries
since its inception in 1984, will lead a discussion track on social
entrepreneurship.

The Rev. John L. Selders Jr., is the founding organizing pastor of Amistad
United Church of Christ in Hartford, Conn., the care coordinator of Zezzo
house, an 18-unit housing project, and the lead principal for the Human
Connection Project. He will lead a discussion track on common community.

Anna Boluda, a journalist, filmmaker and Fulbright scholar who has worked as
a television reporter, a producer and in public relations, will screen her
award-winning film "Queer Spawn." Boluda will teach a plenary session in
documentary filmmaking, and she will teach us ways in which our own families
and our everyday lives provide us with an opportunity to create social
change. The title of her discussion track is "Families as Agents of Change."

Since August, it has been my privilege and honor to serve as program
director of the YWCA of Washington State University. The YWCA is an activist
organization with one imperative: eliminating racism and empowering women.
The YWCA began as the Young Women's Christian Association. We are proud of
our heritage, but in the 152 years since our founding, we have expanded our
reach, our membership, and our vision of the world. The YWCA has always been
committed to peace and increased global understanding. Our first project
after our founding in 1855 was to create housing opportunities for nurses
returning from the Crimean War.

Throughout our history, the YWCA has been concerned about health care, job
training, working conditions, domestic violence, civil rights and social
justice. In the 1930s, we spoke out against lynching and racial segregation.
In 1942, we provided services to Japanese-American women who had been
incarcerated in World War II internment camps. The YWCA adopted an
Interracial Charter eight years before the Supreme Court issued its landmark
decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education.

Today, there are YWCAs in more than 100 countries, and we remain committed
to diversity, equality, and social justice. We are proud to be a sponsor of
Finding the Center, a conference which offers participants the chance to
meet and network with others in the community who are also committed to
peace, tolerance, and positive change.

For more information about Finding the Center, please visit:
 
www.uidaho.edu/ftc

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown