Thought provoking quotes... :)

"Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity are more essential than ever in a world where peoples are becoming more and more closely interconnected."

- Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations

"People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what and who we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings."

- Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents."

- Ludwig van Beethoven

My short film from a Race Relations Showcase

This film was composed as a response to a course at Penn State University, THEA 497, Truth and Reconciliation: Race Relations in America – Performing Arts and Artists Moving Us Forward. It chronicles what I learned from that course. I hope you find it informative and educational...

The Story of a Privileged White Girl: My Blind Awakening 

A nice quote... :)

"We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."

-Jimmy Carter

Wouldn't it be nice if our current president thought so too...as much of the beautiful diversity of our country is due to immigrants, like you and me... If you're not a Native American, you're an immigrant!

Poignant words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Men (humans) hate each other because they fear each other, 
and they fear each other because they don't know each other, 
and they don't know each other because they are often separated from each other."

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Understanding Others

"Without mutual knowledge there can be no mutual understanding; without understanding, there can be no trust and respect; without trust, there can be no peace, only the danger of conflict. This means we have to be willing and able to familiarize ourselves with the way people of other cultures think and perceive the world around them, but without losing our own standpoint in the process. 

- Roman Herzog, Former President of Germany

"Diversity is not casual liberal tolerance of anything not yourself. It is not polite accommodation. Instead, diversity is, in action, the sometimes painful awareness that other people, other races, other voices, other habits of mind have as much integrity of being, as much claim on the world as you do. And I urge you, amid all the differences present to the eye and mind, to reach out to create the bond that will protect us all. We are ALL meant to be here TOGETHER. (emphasis mine)."

- William M. Chase, 'The Language of Action'

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

- Marcel Proust

The gift of Music :)

"Music speaks what cannot be expressed,
soothes the mind and gives it rest,
heals the heart and makes it whole,
flows from heaven to the soul."

-Unknown

Something to Consider...

"The world is made up of people, but the people of the world forget this. It is hard to believe that, like ourselves, other people are born of women, reared by parents, teased by brothers and sisters, consoled by wives (or husbands or partners)...flattered by grandchildren, and buried by ministers and priests (or other religious leaders) with the blessing of the church and the tears of those left behind."
-Menninger, 1942 Love Against Hate, New York: Harcourt, Brace (parentheses mine)

Consider that this was written during WW II, a very dark point in world history... And we, unfortunately, have many dark aspects in our world still today. This quote reminds me that we're all human, and most of us just want to have what we need in life and live peacefully. I hope we as the human race can work toward a world where everyone has their basic needs met, and there is more peace than violence and destruction... Love, Jennifer