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Sioux City - Town Hall for the 100%
Sioux City Brings a Sense of Hope
By Sister Richelle Friedman, PBVM
September 18, 2014
Our second town hall today was held at the Sanford Center in
Sioux City, Iowa. The venue was fitting
as the Center’s mission is to create interracial understanding and better
community living. The lively discussion
that permeated the room centered on the challenging issues that face our nation
– from excessive spending on war, the environment, the safety net, living
wages, to the empowerment of women. The
town hall meeting participants represented diverse ages, races, ethnicities,
and genders.
Simone had said that at the heart of the model needed to
represent the 100 percent is that “we the people” need to talk to each other to
break down barriers that divide us. The
75 present talked about the issues and shared some beginning steps toward
solutions. Northwest Iowa is the most
conservative area of the state.
Interestingly, a number of the small groups talked about the need to
empower and encourage women to become leaders.
Iowa Women’s Leadership has existed since 2008, but it has yet to come
to Sioux City. In my small group, Mary,
a teacher at Briar Cliff University, shared about her on-going efforts to bring
it there.
I had a sense of hope as
individuals shared in large group their passion around being engaged and
bringing about change. Among the
participants were candidates, both incumbents and challengers, and elected
officials not up for election in this cycle.
They were invited to respond to what they heard. I was particularly impressed with a young
college student, Nene, who was very articulate about why it’s important for young
people to vote.
Like on every stop, people were
eager to sign a pledge card to vote, and further commit by signing their name
on the bus. The town halls are proving to be a great strategy for citizen
involvement.
The perfect end to our time off
the bus at the Sanford Center was the sung blessing we received from the
Franciscan Sisters in Sioux City as we boarded the bus for our next stop on the
journey.
