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Gathering in small diverse groups in a thousand living rooms in Rockford, Illinois, each week, 10,000 people will share a light supper, sit down and watch Any Day Now. We will then co-create the new TV show Come Together, participating in small group and community-wide dialogue using webcams. We’ll share micro-documentaries we made, iMovies created with camcorders and computers. This entirely new: true reality television is interactive in a way never before conceived of. And for the first time ever: widespread voluntary social integration. Not just “desegregation.” Many of us will participate because we want fellowship with other Christians; paired churches. Others will be seeking fellowship in secular or ecumenical gatherings. From one of the living rooms, co-hosts will lead us all in dialogue about issues raised in this week’s episode of Any Day Now. The show ran for four years on Lifetime Television and is an intelligent humorous dramatic series about two best friends. Flashbacks of when they were little girls are in black and white with splashes of color. Their friendship prevails against the backdrop of Birmingham in the ‘60s and the present. The show is entertaining, and everyone likes it. The ensemble cast is brilliant, enriching the show. It’s also filled with “hot buttons,” dealing with important issues, often having nothing to do with race. But the background is that Mary Elizabeth O’Brian and Renee Jackson are best friends in a racially charged environment that makes such a friendship unlikely and challenging. It’s great drama! We’ll all learn The Art of Listening. Every group will have prepared for this experience by listening to each member tell his or her story. In hearing each other’s story, we become more comfortable – no longer strangers. Friendships will develop. We’ll feel safer, encountering each other with honesty, learning how to share understandings, even when values conflict. In taking “baby steps” towards integration, people will encounter powerful obstacles! Come Together will focus on helping us all learn dialogue rather than discussion which rhymes with concussion and percussion and has to do with who wins. We’ll learn new ways of communicating. Everyone will see some of us progress from misunderstandings and conflict, learning how to really hear each other and to arrive at shared meanings, shared understandings. We may continue to have profound disagreements in values, yet we’ll learn to accept and trust each other as human beings, and we’ll understand something of why people we disagree with hold onto their beliefs. The co-hosts will help us learn important facts and skills. Each group of about ten people of all ages will include one or two facilitators who are free to call on highly trained professionals prepared to help. People will volunteer to be on camera, working through conflicts and demonstrating a path to mutual respect and understanding. By trusting the process, we will all learn greater civility. Come Together will be riveting television, it will be picked up by cable to be shown worldwide, and it will be replicated in other places around the world. The small groups will create something the world has not witnessed: social integration overcoming racial, economic and cultural barriers. Some groups will go on to transform our world. Come Together will exist when many people work to make it a reality. Join in. Help us! Call Harlan Johnson now: Cell: 815-494-5666 Harlan@actualizations.net 852 Lakewood Drive, Rockford, IL 61102-1228 815-968-5433 |
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Harlan Johnson |
To prepare for "Come Together," we need to learn a way of communicating that meets our need for connection, compassion, assertiveness, and community. Come to the free Nonviolent Communcation Practice Group. Come as often as you like. We meet each Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 6th Street and 3rd Av. (park in lot and enter from rear). |
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Learn about nonviolent communication as developed by Marshall Rosenberg. go to cnvc.org and follow the links. Buy the book NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION - A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg ($18) Come to the practice group which meets every Wednesday, 5 p.m. at Emmanuel. Training is offered through the Alliance for Nonviolent Communication http://www.alliancefornvc.org/main.htm ALSO go to www.cnvc.org Follow the links. It will help you understand what nonviolent communication (also called compassionate communication) is all about. |
GET INVOLVED! Call Harlan now: 815-968-5433 Cell: 815-494-5666 Harlan@actualizations.net 852 Lakewood Drive Rockford, IL 61102-1228 815-968-5433 |