2020 Vital Conversations
A Program of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, CRES,
And Mid-Continent Public Library - The Antioch Branch
6060 N. Chestnut. Gladstone, MO 64119
The Second Wednesday of each month from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
VC Coffee - the Fourth Wednesday at 8 a.m. at Panera Bread, 311 NE Englewood Rd.
March 11 - –
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi
“Given our circumstances, ‘neighbor’ may be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dreams, violators of each other’s sense of home. We are living incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares. Neighbors?” In this taut and provocative book, Halevi endeavors to untangle the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century. Using history and personal experience as his guides, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger, and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel.
Releasing conversation: Share your name and identify your home community.
1. “As the Qur’an so powerfully notes, despair is equivalent to disbelief in God. To doubt the possibility of reconciliation is to limit God’s power, the possibility of miracle – especially in this land. The Torah commands me, ‘Seek peace and pursue it’ ---even when peace appears impossible, perhaps especially the.” (18-19). Why is the author writing this as letters to a Palestinian neighbor?
2. “Israel exists because it never stopped existing, even if only in prayer…Need gave Zionism its urgency, but longing gave Zionism its spiritual substance.” (p. 34-35). What is Zionism? Did this book add any to your understanding of Zionism?
3. “So long as Palestinian leaders insist on defining the Jews as a religion rather than allowing us to define ourselves as we have since ancient times – as a people with a particular faith – then Israel will continue to be seen as illegitimate, its existence an open question” (52). How do you understand this distinction? Why does it make a difference?
4. “We live in such intimacy, we can almost hear each other breathing. What choice do we have but to share this land? And by that, I mean share conceptually as well as tangibly. We must learn to accommodate each other’s narratives. That is why I persist in writing to you why I am trying to reach out across the small space and vast abyss that separates your hill from mine.” (89). Can you imagine or have you experienced living in such proximity to people that so often see each other as “the enemy”? What does it mean to “accommodate each other’s narratives? How can the USA and other nations be allies to both sides?
5. “Sustaining the tension between the particular and the universal is one of the great challenges facing Jewish people today.” (61). What does this mean to you?
6. “The enemy of justice for both sides is absolute justice for either side.” (124). What does the author mean by this statement?
7. “Perhaps we can help restore each other to balance. Jews, I feel, need something of the Muslim prayer mat; my Muslim friends say that need something of the Jewish study hall. Can we inspire each other to renew our spiritual greatness? (152). How can we benefit from both the prayer mat and the study hall?
8. “I am the son not of destruction but of rebirth.” (179). What does this mean to you and why does it make a difference?
April 8 – Why Won’t You Apologize? Healing Big Betrayals and Everyday Hurst by Harriet Learner
The courage to apologize, and the wisdom to do it well, is at the heart of effective leadership, marriage, parenting, friendship, personal integrity, and what we call love. “I’m sorry” are the two most powerful words in the English language. Harriet Learner is one of our nation’s most loved and respected relationship experts, renowned for her scholarly work on the psychology of women and family relationships.
May 13 - Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
In the Spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA, Dani Shapiro received the astonishing news that her beloved deceased father was not her biological father. Over the course of a single day, her entire history ---the life she had lived ---crumbled beneath her. In just a few hours of Internet sleuthing, she was able to piece together the story of her conception ad, remarkable, fid a You Tube video of her biological father. A true story that reads like a novel.
June 10 – American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders by Jacob Needleman
Jacob Needleman has spent a lifetime studying the religious traditions of the world looks at the wisdom of the American Spirit by focusing on George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, The American Indian, Frederick Douglas, Walt Whitman and others. He shares his perspective on where we have been and his vision of what is still possible in this nation.
Sacred Citizenship by Vern Barnet
We will also read an updated version of our friend Vern Barnet’s paper of “Civil Religion” which has been part of classes on World Religions. Vern will be with us to share his insight and our vital conversation.
July 8 – Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
“From the frontline of social justice comes one of the most urgent voices of our era. Bryan Stevenson is a real-life Atticus Finch who, through his work in redeeming innocent people condemned to death, has sought to redeem the country itself. This is a book of great power and courage, It is inspiring and suspenseful. A revelation.” Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Suns.
August 12 – The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss
The author artfully recasts the saga of women’s quest for the vote by focusing on the campaign’s last six weeks, when it all came down to one ambivalent state. The dauntless – but divided – suffragists confront the “Antis” – women who oppose their own enfranchisement., fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation.
Atkins Johnson Farm and Museum “Votes for Women: The Fight for Women’s Suffrage in Kansas and Missouri” August 5 – October 3, 2020. This exhibition is made possible by the Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area traveling exhibit program, administered by the Watkins Museum of History. Museum admission is free. The creator of the exhibit will speak at the opening on August 5.Algon
Not so Minor: The Supreme Court Denies Women's Right to Vote
Wednesday, August 26 at the Gladstone Community Center 6:30 pm.
Selections are subject to change. If you would like to be reminded and have additional information, contact David Nelson at humanagenda@gmail.com or call (816) 453-3835
David E. Nelson
816.453.3835
humanagenda@gmail.com