[Vision2020] All kinds? Uh... right.

[Tony]

Tom, here's just a brief note to help your friend Joan in answering her 
question as to why she is interested in a conference about "finding the 
center."   I believe the answer is that said conference is a gathering of 
ultra-liberals and boasts NO CONSERVATIVE VOICES.  Clearly Joan is enamored 
with the program because it has absolutely nothing to do with finding the 
center so much as providing a forum for liberals to engage in their favorite 
pastime: self congratulatory moral posturing.

Ho-hum.

-T
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 3:31 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] It Takes All Kinds to Help Find the Center


> >From today's (April 6, 2007) Moscow-Pullman Daily News -
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "If not us, who?
> If not now, when?"
>
> - Unknown
>
>
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