Alex Wise Joins Initiatives of Change Board 

 

Alex Wise   (Photo: Karen Elliott Greisdorf)

H. Alexander Wise was elected to the Initiatives of Change Board of Directors at its Annual Meeting in February. Alex has led a varied life as educator, public servant, lawyer, and social entrepreneur. Since 2007 he has been the director of development of St. George's Independent School in Memphis,TN which has forged a new model for independent schools that seek to diversify their constituencies.

History has always been Alex's first love.  During the 1980s as an aide to U. S. Senator John Heinz and later as a Reagan appointee, he spearheaded initiatives to build on postwar U.S.-German reconciliation in an era when Cold War pressures seemed to be forcing the two countries apart.  In the '90s, he directed the Virginia Department of Historic Resources under two governors.

It was his vision to create the American Civil War Center in Richmond as a place of dialogue where the Union, Confederate, and African American stories could be told under one roof, and he served as the center's first president/CEO and chief fundraiser... 

Alex says, "Historical imagination is the ability to imagine walking in the other person's shoes... Honest conversation about race and responsibility strips away isolating pretensions and allows us to feel and value the humanity of all.  Honest conversation fosters forgiveness and healing."

Alex has been actively involved with Initiatives of Change and its program Hope in the Cities for more than ten years.  He says, "IofC founder Frank Buchman was a man whose faith gave him the strength to confront his prejudices, deal honestly with others, and thereby gain the trust of the most unlikely people. By building relationships of trust with world leaders, he made the world a better place. The trustbuilding work of IofC continues today across racial, economic, and religious divides, and I look forward to doing what I can to further that work."

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The Courage to Stand Up to Bullies  

 

Day Ely Ravenscroft

I was born, brought up, and most often voted Republican. Recently in Arizona, our Republicans have become very unlike the ones I remember, such as my father, Senator Wadsworth, Senator Saltonstall, Senator Dirksen, Senator Goldwater and President Reagan.  

Yes, we always leaned toward "the people's right to bear arms" but basically rifles and shotguns for hunting and a permit for a pistol. No concealed weapons, and certainly no combat weapons with 30 rounds in the clip. Yes, we preferred low taxes but we were not against "the safety net." Most of those laws in 1940s and 50s, like the GI Bill for studies, were passed in a bi-partisan manner.  And, in the old days, we definitely believed that power should stay as "low on the totem pole" as possible - villages, cities, counties, states, and then federal.

You may agree with some of the current bills before the legislature that attempt to remove the power of the Federal Government to regulate, that dictate to cities and counties how services are managed and seek to privatize much in the public sector, or the bills to loosen gun control laws making it legal to carry concealed weapons in the State Capitol, at community festivals, or on school property. These are not just bills being proposed in the legislature to balance the budget.

Wherever we have an imbalance of power we risk the tyranny of the majority. When Republicans or Democrats are 100% in control the power can shift to the far right or left and those that are more moderate get bullied by the extremists.

What some of us are doing here to build solutions in Arizona is training people how to talk about problem solving with people who have a different opinion from theirs, or may just be shouting slogans. We are rebuilding our churches, schools, clubs, bowling leagues and choirs and turning them again into places where people talk about important things and learn how to hold a useful discussion, really listening and thinking together, rather than just waiting to present their own point of view.   

It is slower than campaigning for a different party to win the next election, but that doesn't necessarily help because both parties now are trained to shout slogans instead of seeking solutions. What we need to find is "Not who is right but what is right."

And remember, most of us learned as children that our own honor is measured by how we treat the vulnerable among us. We were not brought up to be bullies. These proposed bills will cost lives directly and indirectly. Pray for the young, the sick, the old and the poor in Arizona.

Day Ravenscroft is an octogenarian living in a retirement community in Tucson. She first met Frank Buchman, founder of Initiatives of Change, in the 1930s and spent many years in service to this work on several continents. She has been a community activist and change maker all her life.  

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