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Greetings!
Registration is now open for The Trust Factor 2011!
 It has been an exciting experience to work with our creative partner organizations to design this series of events in Washington, DC, October 10-15. We hope to see many of you there!
News from this summer includes a story on how Hope in the Cities facilitated a civil rights pilgrimage for students in Mississippi and a walk along the Slave Trail for youngsters with the Children's Choir of Greater Richmond.
A report from the conferences in Caux, Switzerland, features the contribution made by Rev. Tee Turner of Hope in the Cities.
Remember Metropolitan Richmond Day, November 15!
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Writing a New History
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Taking a stand! Students at the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, AL.
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By Karen Elliott Greisdorf
This fall schools throughout Mississippi will begin covering a mandated civil rights history curriculum for the first time. But this past summer, 18 American 8th-through 12th-graders of African, European, Asian, and Latino descent, from Philadelphia, MS discovered there's no substitute for literally walking through history. They took part in the Writing A New History Civil Rights Youth Pilgrimage and traveled to Jackson, MS, Memphis, TN, and on to Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, AL. Coming To The Table (CTTT), a program of Eastern Mennonite University, led the trip and Hope in the Cities' staff contributed to the curriculum development and facilitation. "No one does transformative work quite like Hope in the Cities," says Sha Jackson, Associate Program Director of CCCT. "Their expertise, professionalism, and sound passion for history proved to be an invaluable asset." "The idea of writing a new history is an important concept," says Cricket White, of Hope in the Cities, who developed the curriculum for the pilgrimage with her colleague Rev.Tee Turner. "Young people today hear about things that happened 50 or 75 years ago and ask, 'What difference does it make? My life is not like that.'" White added, "Reframing that history together, as black and white young people, helps them tell it in ways appropriate to their peers." On the outskirts of Philadelphia, MS three civil rights workers were killed in 1964. Nearly 40 years later, one of the men responsible for the murders was convicted. Along with this painful impact on the town's history came a culture of silence and a resistance to discuss their history. Many of the students on the pilgrimage began the journey with little knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement. "There's been a code of silence in our country for centuries that is not just across race lines, but within racial groups," says Bonnie Dowdy, a Hope in the Cities facilitator who took part in the pilgrimage. One student, Alexis Euyogue, remarked, "On this trip I got to hear from people who were there themselves. To hear from them about what happened is to know the truth, not just what textbooks want us to know." Another student, Kendrick Tripplet says, "Something that I've experienced on this trip is to always stay motivated. To take information that I've learned back home. Take it and run with it!" Karen Elliott Greisdorf is a photographer and film producer who traveled with the pilgrimage and is now editing a half-hour documentary on the journey. Read the complete story here. Read more about the Writing A New History Pilgrimage |
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Healing Wounded Memory
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Brendan McAllister, Northern Ireland's Victims' Commissioner
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Dr. Margaret E. Smith, from the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, reports on the Caux Forum for Human Security in Switzerland.
Overcoming the mistrust created by the wounds of history was the focus of one of the workshops during the Caux Forum for Human Security. There is a need to shift historical narratives that perpetuate personal trauma, power imbalance, injustice and other social divisions.
Brendan McAllister, one of Northern Ireland's three Victims' Commissioners, defined the task of the politician in Northern Ireland as finding a way to retain your own group's loyalty while doing business with the other. The vision of true community, said McAllister, is well defined by the Mennonite activist and scholar John Paul Lederach, when he speaks of the "moral imagination." In a society held together by the moral imagination, relationships - especially with those different from ourselves - are the core of the matter, and creativity, risk and curiosity contribute further dimensions. Curiosity means taking a caring interest in the "other side," showing concern for their welfare, and making sure the opponent's interest is served.
Rev. Tee Turner, director of Hope in the Cities reconciliation projects from Richmond, VA, told about his reaction, as an African American, to a statue of a confederate soldier in his city, and how he had realized that white southerners had built the statue out of grief. "I had encountered compassion for someone whose actions I hated and despised." He described his work with the city's Slave Trail Commission, and Richmond's joint memorialization of the slave trade with Liverpool and Benin. "I have to own my history, in the same way I own the family members I would prefer not to claim. My history is part of who I am."
Another participant asked whether those currently alive are supposed to adopt a feeling of guilt for what previous generations did? Tee Turner responded, "No. But each of us is accountable to engage in the truth and walk in the truth. That is what we mean when we speak of 'white privilege.' White Americans do experience privileges that they have inherited because of slavery and other inequalities. The question is what do we do with that?"
Read the complete story here.
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A New Way to Learn History
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Students gather around Tee Turner on the Slave Trail
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By Katy Rugg
As a new intern with Hope in the Cities, it was a privilege to accompany the Children's Choir of Greater Richmond as they walked the historic Slave Trail, and one I will not soon forget.
This talented, diverse group of kids of all ages, from all over the metro area, come together to share the joy of singing, to strive for excellence, and to share their talents. They began the day with a South African song, Siyahamba. As they sang the chorus, 'We are marching in the light of God,' they set the tone for a walk through history.
At this place where Africans, who were sold into slavery, disembarked from the ships, Rev. Tee Turner helped the students imagine how completely disorienting their arrival in a foreign landscape would have been after a difficult journey. He described the hardships that the enslaved Africans endured, and the long march along the path to where they were sold, and then he invited everyone to hold hands and walk silently - mirroring that experience with body and mind.
This powerful moment of learning and connecting continued as we stood together around the Reconciliation Statue. Rev. Turner stressed the importance of acknowledging the heritage of strength that all African Americans share - that their ancestors were survivors, and there is no shame in that. It is our shared history, our shared story. We are all empowered to shape the future together. These young people will carry this experience with them as they reach across historic divides to share the joy of song with the wider community.
For me as an intern it gave me a sense of what Hope in the Cities is all about. I got to see how walking through history can make a difference in people's lives, as well as in our community. I felt very proud, standing there with these young people by the statue, to be from this city, and to be involved with this work.
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The Claims of Trust
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Lester A. Myers
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Lester A. Myers is a professorial lecturer in ethics at Georgetown University, a Caux Round Table Fellow, and chair of the board for the Sustainable Business Network of Washington. His statements represent his own views and do not necessarily represent the views of these organizations.
Since at least the 1960s, public trust has declined in government, business, religion, and other institutions. The parade of lamentable behavior from these institutions has contributed to pervasive skepticism about the authenticity of their missions and the integrity of their leaders. Due to the vast scale of many institutions, e.g., global corporations and national governments, the distance between these decision makers and the public can feed suspicions. It is harder to trust others when one does not have regular direct contact with them, and, in such gaps, perceptions about trustworthiness can become reality.
In an increasingly coarse atmosphere of self-aggrandizing privilege, narcissistic opportunism, and indifference to the common good, many leaders revel in bread and circuses when they should lower their heads in shame. It is no wonder, then, that, when leaders come along who sincerely mean to discharge their duties, help improve their institutions, aspire to personal integrity, and promote the common good, they can face uphill battles in overcoming presumptions that they are self-serving frauds taking the stage for their 15 minutes of fame and plundering. We, of course, are largely responsible for our leaders, since, despite growing concentrations of political, financial, and media power, they still reflect our choices in the market place and the polling booth. The perennial issue of trust in leaders implicates the question of trust in one another. Aristotle wrote that politics is a higher science than ethics, a claim likely to elicit derision, or worse, today. However, his point was that ethics is the discipline for bringing the good to oneself, while politics is for bringing the good to the community. The founders of the United States possessed a robust vision of happiness as the human good, not as an undisciplined egoistic indulgence of individuated whims that reflexively construes oversight as a menace to liberty. The former aligns with the ancient Greek notion of well-being that reflects the integrity of virtues. The latter nihilistically clings to an insecure and immature anthropology that masquerades as "rugged individualism," but that readily degrades into socio-pathological dissipation and self-victimization. The issue is not whether we should aspire to trust, but rather where we shall place our trust. The question is whether our willingness to acknowledge trust's claims will allow us to see through the shallow seduction of bread and circuses to embrace a holistic vision for the common good worthy of our trust. Read the complete commentary here.
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Hope you enjoyed this issue of Breakthroughs Online. Please share this newsletter with your friends and forward it to those you know have a passion for trustbuilding. Hope in the Cities is a program of Initiatives of Change. Visit our website for more information.
Thank you! |
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Supporting HIC
If you would like to support any of the programs you have read about in this newsletter, please do so by clicking on the button below. |
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Metropolitan Richmond Day 2011!
This year marks 15 years of Truth and Trustbuilding
in the region.
The keynote speaker is
Dr. John W. Franklin,
Director of Partnerships and International Programs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian.
For more information
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The 2010 Annual Report of Initiatives of Change
is available on-line.
 This report highlights several important ways in which IofC is carrying out its mission to inspire, equip, and engage individuals as trustbuilders.
Download the report
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A New People Story is Online
Read about Dixie Worthington and what changed his perspective on life.
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The Imam & The Pastor
"The African model for finding peace amid the continent's warring communities"
The Times (London)
An African Answer
The second film about the work of these two African peacemakers, will be launched in the U.S. in October.
See special pre-launch offer of
Two. Together.
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Hope in the Cities
is a program of
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