A Conversation on PEACE VIII Ongoing Conversations Monday, January 7th, 2001

It is not surprising that September 11 affected people who lost loved ones in the tragedy. What is surprising, is how much it affected people all across the country. The staff at St. Joan's anticipated this by forming a group to have "Peace Conversations". The group tries to meet every other week to discuss peaceful alternatives in reacting to the tragedy. The Conversations group has broken into three groups, Political Action, Education, and Networking. Pete Eichten, St. Joan's Administrator, serves as the facilitator of the group.

The group is hoping to get Sen. Dayton to come to St. Joan's for a large group conversation, but the special session has delayed this goal. In November they were able to get representatives from the office's of some of our legislators to attend a meeting and they presented them with a peace statement the group had written. The statement had over 900 signatures of people who supported it. They also presented them with a list of questions in hopes the legislators would respond. There were over 100 people in attendance that evening. So far they have not heard back any answers to their questions.

At the meeting on Monday January 7, there was a discussion to plan a party. It was suggested that they invite members of the Muslim community in order to build understanding and respect with other religions.

Theresa Hinnenkamp was one of the twenty-four people in attendance at the meeting on January 7. Theresa said that she decided to attend the meeting because she wanted to feel like she was doing something. "I would read the newspapers and listen to the news and it seems so huge. I felt so helpless in the face of it. I wanted tangible ways to be a voice of peace."

Marcene Stetz has attended mass at St. Joan’s for the past two years, though she just became an “official” member last Fall. Marcene works at Periscope, an advertising agency in Minneapolis where she is in charge of getting projects printed. She is looking forward to putting her hobby of writing to good use for the web team, as well as meeting more people at St. Joan’s.

If you would like to get involved with the "Peace Conversations" group, check the bulletin for announcements of the next meeting. You can also contact the offices of Wellstone and Dayton and ask them to answer the questions which were submitted to their representatives last November.

The next Conversations on Peace will be on Monday Jan. 21, 2002, at 7:00 PM. All are invited.

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