ISAIAH Organization sponsored a three hour webinar this afternoon. What is ISAIAH? "We are a multi-racial, state-wide, nonpartisan coalition of faith communities fighting for racial and economic justice in Minnesota." (from their web site) With my abbreviated attention span I was skeptical of staying engaged for that long. But it worked! There were testimonials from a variety of leaders in various facets of ISAIAH, Executive Director, Doran Schranz spoke, effectively I may add, and then there were responses from elected leaders to questions ISAIAH had submitted. These leaders included Governor Tim Walz, MN House Leader Mellissa Hortman, 3 Minneapolis City Council members and the mayors of St. Paul, Rochester and St. cloud.
It was inspiring, educational and engaging. 3000 people were in attendance and there was opportunity for commitment. As the first president of ISAIAH, I'm deeply gratified to see how far is has come. Vivid memories come of all the meetings and effort to organize confronted by deep skepticism. Many persons understand community organizing but ISAIAH began as faith based organizing, beginning with religious groups. Much of ISAIAH's strength today comes from the Muslim community and includes other groups that are not religion based. Credit for ISAIAH should be give to the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Paul. The Diocese funded the organizers who did the original organizing that led to ISAIAH.
Yes, three hours well spent!
Takk for alt,
Al
The pond across the street today.
No comments:
Post a Comment