The Center for Conflict Management
The Center for Conflict Management is committed to helping individuals, communities, corporations, and government agencies build positive responses to conflict. The Center provides customized training, facilitation, mediation, and systems analysis and design services.
In March 2010, the Center for Conflict Management will be hosting The Big Read. The Big Read presents an opportunity for the public and community organizations—libraries, educational institutions, social service organizations, government agencies, and media outlets—to join together as life-long readers and learners to discuss themes of conflict, tolerance, and difficult social issues. It gives us a chance as passionate, casual, or reluctant readers to expand our knowledge, build community, and develop relationships. Because “The privacy of reading frees us to entertain the alien (Mason Cooley),” it invites us to actively consider our world, helps us develop empathy for others, and encourages us to appreciate different life styles and life histories.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may seem them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” ~Apple Advertising Slogan, 1997
Poverty, slavery, oppression, pollution...these are the challenges of a new millennia. Pictures of starving children and sprawling shantytowns crowd our media. Slavery has reemerged from the shadows and become one of the largest and fastest growing criminal enterprises in the world. Political oppression in countries around the world, from Russia to Sudan, threatens global security and violates individual’s human rights. Every day communities face environmental disasters, such as droughts, floods, and storms due to global warming.
It can be overwhelming, but amid all the chaos, social movements emerge and attempt, for better or for worse, to make sense of the madness and create change. Explore their struggle to shape our world and learn the Power of the People.
