 Quotable |
 We need to understand the world; we need to accept theworld.  |
| - Mary Baer, co-chairwoman of the Waukesha County Diversity Task Force |
Posted on 08/01/2003 2:54:17 PM PDT by MikalM
Waukesha - Convinced that American racism played a role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Waukesha County activists are planning a major new effort to promote racial and ethnic harmony.
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The kickoff date: the second anniversary of the day of horror.
A coalition that includes the YWCA of Waukesha, Waukesha School District and many other groups will spend three years encouraging interaction and understanding between white people and minorities.
Organizers say the connection to terrorism is simple: If Americans were more tolerant of racial and ethnic minorities, we would not evoke hostility abroad and would not have been attacked Sept. 11, 2001, by Islamic extremists from the Middle East.
"Some of the reasons it happened are our arrogance and our ignorance," said Mary Baer, co-chairwoman of the Waukesha County Diversity Task Force. "We need to understand the world; we need to accept the world."
The task force, which was formed by the YWCA four years ago, will lead the Sept. 11 kickoff and announce a three-year calendar of events aimed at eliminating racism in Waukesha County by 2006.
Each participant at the invitation-only kickoff event will be asked to sign a pledge "to develop a new American nation strengthened by diversity."
But organizers are determined that such symbolic gestures will be followed by tangible progress on issues that include housing, transportation and employment opportunities for minorities.
"We want to have more than just a one-day, feel-good experience," said Kathleen Carlson, chairman of the task force, who said she hopes to get 300 to 400 people actively involved.
Carlson is a coordinator of college development at Waukesha County Technical College, while Baer is a regional manager for Cooper Power Systems.
Centering largely on economic development themes, organizers hope to raise such questions as: Why do some Waukesha County employers have to bus workers from Milwaukee County to maintain an affordable labor base? From there, the effort will turn to whether the county has discouraged minorities from living here and whether blacks or Hispanics are harassed by racial profiling.
Gayle Becker-Protz, executive director of the YWCA, said the ultimate objective is to show suburbanites that their lives would be more fulfilling if they experienced black, Hispanic and other cultures more regularly.
"Until you really live and work together, you're ignorant about how much you are the same," she said.
The Sept. 11 kickoff will be at Waukesha County Technical College and will include guest speakers and a panel discussion of diversity issues.
Details of the three-year strategy have not been disclosed yet, but organizers have identified civic leaders willing to push the agenda in their fields of expertise. Those "champions of diversity" and their focus areas are Elmbrook School Superintendent Matthew Gibson - education; Aurora Health Care work force planning director Rhonda Taylor Parris - employment; Waukesha Housing Authority Executive Director David Cappon - housing; and Circuit Judge Ralph Ramirez - policy-making.
On education, Gibson hopes to identify ways of hiring more minority teachers and other employees, as well as solutions to the achievement gap that leaves many minority students behind the curve.
Gibson said he has found early support for dealing with those topics among his counterparts in other school districts throughout the county.
"I don't think it's an uphill issue," he said.
Other groups involved in the diversity effort include the Waukesha County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, La Casa de Esperanza, the Waukesha County Federated Library System and Carroll College.
Organizers said they were not reluctant to hold the kickoff on Sept. 11 and make the connection to terrorism.
Carlson said embracing multiculturalism at home is the first step toward understanding world cultures and ending international conflict.
"If we can't even talk to our black, Hispanic and Asian neighbors, we're going to have a real hard time dealing with the populations overseas," she said. "How can we afford to snub our own and build walls against our own?"
For more information about the Waukesha County Diversity Task Force, go to my.execpc.com/~wcfls.
Certainly, if America were more 'tolerant' of Palestinian bombings, barbaric massacres and tyrannical dictators, the world would be such a happy, happy place. Can't we all just get along? I can see what a wise woman Mary Baer is. Don't you just want to hug her and have a happy, happy pajama party? Gee, I wish America hadn't been so arrogant and racist so those poor, disenfranchised victims of racism weren't forced by desperation to coldly plan for years so they could kill 3000 people in the name of diversity.
"Some of the reasons it happened are our arrogance and our ignorance,"
Americans operate on every continent, in almost every country on earth. Between our commercial ties, and political, and military, there are enormous numbers of Americans who have lived and presently do live in any country you can think of. Between soldiers and engineers and roustabouts, you will not find a more widely traveled bunch on this earth.
These are the kinds of people who have to get pages added to their passports when there is no more room for visas and stamps.
And these are the kinds of people who get lectured by a little librarian from Wisconsin for their supposed ignorance and arrogance.
"If we can't even talk to our black, Hispanic and Asian neighbors, we're going to have a real hard time dealing with the populations overseas,"
Where do these people get their ideas from? Who says we don't talk to our neighbors? She must get her ideas about how the world works from a TV sitcom.
Try to explain color-blind citizenship to people like this, try to explain that most of us really don't care what color you are, that for most of us it really is just about character. They don't get it, and they won't get it.
I'll agree that you're ignorant and arrogant, Mary Baer, but IT'S THE FREAKIN' RELIGION OF MURDER that needs to learn to accept the world. And the only way to get them to do that is to kick their ass.
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