Event Recap: How to Fight Human Trafficking

Salons at Stowe

November 15, 2012

Harriet Beecher Stowe fought to end slavery, yet it still exists today.  Human sex trafficking is the most common form of modern-day slavery.  Estimates place the number of its domestic and international victims in the millions, mostly females and children enslaved in the commercial sex industry for little or no money.  The terms human trafficking and sex slavery usually conjure up images of young girls beaten and abused in faraway places, like Eastern Europe, Asia, or Africa. Actually, sex trafficking happens locally in cities and towns, both large and small, throughout the United States, including here in Connecticut.

Featured guests:

Steven Ferraro, Director, Loving Our Children, has been a Volunteer Abolitionist since 2009. He’s been the Connecticut State Co-Director for Not For Sale Campaign with Karen Herbert for 2 years. He also works with Truckers Against Trafficking. By training Steve is a Manufacturing Engineer employed as Director of Engineering and Quality at a local manufacturer.

Tammy Sneed is the Director of Girls' Services for the Department of Children and Families (DCF) Academy for Family and Workforce Knowledge and Development. She’s a national expert on Gender-Responsive Programming for adolescent girls, and specializes in programming for youth in the legal system.  She has developed and implemented a training model on how to work with traumatized adolescent girls for police departments resulting in significant arrest reductions.

Recently, she has focused on DCFs response to Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST). 

Tammy is also a foster/ adoptive mother. She has developed training for foster and adoptive parents and has been a mentor for forever families. 

  

Opening Remarks:

Steve Ferraro, Volunteer Abolitionist

• Became a volunteer abolitionist four years ago when he became impassioned about the issue and the idea that slavery should not be happening.
• First volunteered for Not For Sale, an organization based in California working to educate about and combat human trafficking, eventually becoming a co-director of the Connecticut chapter.
• Wherever he went to speak about human trafficking, people wanted to hear from the experts. He learned that the only experts are those enslaved, survivors of slavery, or those working on the front lines of the issue.
• Learned that while there are limits to what people can know or do, everyone can do something.
• Left Not For Sale, which has an international focus, to focus on human trafficking in Connecticut and US
• Truckers Against Trafficking effectively educates truckers about what they need to look for and who they should contact to take action. Question posed:  Do you know the signs of human trafficking?  Do you know who to call?  Truckers are ranked number 8 of all groups who call the national trafficking hotline.
• While training a group of truckers in Knoxville, TN, a trucker was able to identify a young girl who was being trafficked and contacted police to rescue the girl.
• Steve hopes to develop an information card like the one that Truckers Against Trafficking distributes that can be adapted for local communities to help save children.
• The “demand side” is rarely discussed.  Within our sphere of influence we all know someone who pays for sex, goes to strip clubs, or paid sex websites.

Tammy Sneed, DCF

• Runs a small department within the Department of Children and Families.  The staff is small and workers share priorities, as no funds are exclusively allotted for this initiative.
• Need is great with few resources, parents with children as young as 11 years old have asked her to come and speak.
• The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008 (TVPA) covers all forms of human trafficking.  This national law, which guarantees all victims certain rights, is up for renewal and President Obama has said it is a priority. http://www.justice.gov/olp/pdf/wilberforce-act.pdf
• 100,000 to 300,000 youth are victims of domestic trafficking. 20,000 international youth are trafficking victims in the US.
• Connecticut DCF child victim data:
• 108 victims of sex exploitation under the age of 18
•  Age range of children is 11 to 185 of the reported were boys
• Nationally the percentage of boys trafficked is 20% and boys are less likely to disclose they have been trafficked because of sexuality questions.  They are more embarrassed.  We need to do a better job identifying male victims by asking better questions.
• 99% have long histories of neglect and abuse before they are trafficked according to DCF records
• CT is ahead of other states in laws regarding trafficking. 
• Trafficked youth under 16 can be arrested, but not prosecuted.
• Reference slide on Domestic Sex Trafficking
• Local examples of trafficking:
• Boyfriends selling their girlfriends at private parties
• Gang related trafficking where the fear factor prevents the sharing of information
• Girl convicted with legitimate identification saying she was in her 20s, but in reality she was under 16 years old
• Pimps responding to ads for escorts during Super Bowl (national problem)
• Pimps seeking young girls and boys
• Pimps even try to solicit the help of other girls who were rescued and living in Congregate Care facilities.
• A mother became suspicious that something was wrong with her daughter and discovered she was lured into sex trafficking after meeting the wrong people at a party. She discovered a list of johns in her daughter’s diary.
• A teen girl (who had been abused and neglected as a child) was found to be trafficking a transgender boy.
• Suggested everyone watch Very Young Girls, by GEMS (Girls Educational Mentoring Services). While very difficult to watch, it is very informative and Tammy uses it as teaching tool.
• DCF work includes DCF Director meeting with police chiefs from around the state training them that police should call DCF if they suspect trafficking.  They discovered information was not moving down through the ranks. DCF has done “roll call” trainings with police officers and trainings with EMS workers.
• Education is needed. Once people are educated, the calls to DCF come in.  People need to be educated that those trafficked are victims, not “just a prostitute” as Tammy has even heard a nurse say.
• Steve reminded us that police officers serve the public and that it is important that we call, write and visit our local police departments and ask them to request the training that DCF offers for our police officers.
• Tammy is training 500 police officers from West Hartford and surrounding communities.
• Any young person can be a victim, including those children that have never had any connection to DCF.
• Physical signs of youth being trafficked: tattoos that are identical to those of a pimp, branding by a pimp. -Victims don’t always want police, EMS, or DCF help and may not see themselves as victims
• DCF Careline is 800-842-2288
• Multicultural Director Bill Rivera works with Tammy on a three-day certification offered monthly that anyone can take.
• Non-profit organization Love 146 has developed a program for high school students.  The 10 week program is called My Life, My Choice and educates teens about signs of trafficking and how to avoid it and help their peers. It is offered without cost to schools, and they are developing a program for middle school youth.
• Parents must be educated so that they can educate their kids. Steve wants to develop more community training.Trafficking issue is where domestic violence issue was years ago.  People didn’t understand why the victim didn’t just leave.  Officer Deborah Scates, from the Hartford PD, noted that people don’t realize that victims are “groomed” or “charmed” into the life and then they can’t get out.
• Tammy and audience members emphasized that there should be a movement away from the language used.  Not using “prostitute” acknowledges that the girls and women are victims.  There is a reason why they are on the streets.  There is a reason why they are an escort.  Begin to see all as victims.  Even the adults usually have records that can be traced back to DCF cases where they were neglected and abused.

Group discussion:

Why do women (who are on the “supply side” of the issue) get their pictures put in the paper and men don’t?

• Steve:  Men are the minority at this program and are at most trainings, even though they are the problem. There are never more than 25% in the room. For every john arrested there are 50 women arrested. A john that is arrested is wrongly treated like he is the victim because people consider that his wife, children, and co-workers might find out. Ignorance causes a lot of this attitude.  If there were no men buying sex there would be no people selling it.
• Steve quoted Stowe: “Women are the real architects of society.” Women who have boys in their care have to teach them to be respectful men.  Talk to the males in your life. Give your sons a positive expectation. Tell them you don’t ever want to see them in a strip club. 
• Respect everyone.
• Tammy: Her son, in his 20’s, was asked to secure an escort for a boss who was traveling. He didn’t do it, but discovered from colleagues that the boss’ request was very common.

Is there a curriculum for boys?

• Love 146 integrates training for boys in their program. And DCF has a 10 week program called “Man Up.”
• Steve: Watch Truckers Against Trafficking video and Very Young Girls.

What about legalizing prostitution?

• Draw the line between minors and consenting adults who are prostitutes. 
• Steve:  “No child should be commercially sold for sex.  And remember most prostitutes are in the life because of force, fraud, or coercion.  We love our own children, but we need to love each other’s children as much as we love our own.  Know the kids in your neighborhood—who waits for the bus, what are their names, who are the parents that wait in their cars.  Pay attention and learn to recognize when something isn’t right.
• Tammy: Young people share a lot of information on Facebook and the internet.  Respond right away when you see something inappropriate on the internet.

What are the efforts to stop human trafficking?

• Audience member has interviewed more than 300 johns over the last 16 years. Community Court hears these cases and has a program for johns where they pay a fine and enter a program with classes that educate them about trafficking.  Their pictures are in the paper and their fine goes to women’s programs.  If they are arrested a second time they go to jail.  Many johns believe that the women want to be with them and learn otherwise for the first time in these classes.
• Community Court also has a program for women.  The problem is that these programs are funded by grants and Officer Scates said they may be losing the money for these programs. 
• Audience member noted that we should call trafficking what it is.  Stowe called slavery what it was (in Uncle Tom’s Cabin). We need to change the way we talk about trafficking.  Say “To be prostituted.”  This language changes the paradigm.  Focus is what is now on what is being done to the victim.
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  Closing

• Steve: For a full day, try to think of everyone you see as a person.  Not the person who cuts in front of you in traffic, or a poor or homeless person, or an old person.  No labels.  Just a person.  This would help us see a trafficked girl as a victim.  No one was born to be a slave of another person.  That is not what they were intended to be.

Inspiration to Action:

• Educate yourself
• Organize your groups, community, church, etc. to work together to stop trafficking
• Visit: www.truckersagainsttrafficking.com
• Advocate at Legislative Office Building (LOB)
• Watch Showtime documentary “Very Young Girls” (purchase through Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS))
• Talk to your local police department about importance of  training on trafficking
• CT DCF Careline (800) 842-2288 http://www.ct.gov/dcf/cwp/view.asp?a=2556&q=314388
• Organize a workshop at your school. Educate parents so they can educate kids
• Take the DCF three-day training or Love 146 training
• Educate boys and men about human trafficking – it is never ok to exploit women/children
• DCF “Man Up” curriculum
• Respect – break down myths about prostitution
• Start small, pay attention
• Know the names of the kids in your neighborhood and what cars should be at the bus stop, etc.
• If you hear or see something, do something
• If you see something on a child’s Facebook or website, do something – TAKE ACTION
• Pay attention to what you and your loved ones are doing online
• Be aware of how you talk about prostitution and human trafficking
• Don’t romanticize prostitution
• Refer to trafficking as “to be prostituted” rather than “prostitute”
• Look at people without labels
• Find everybody that is about to be lost
• Live your life differently and you can make a difference in the world

Event Recap: Liberating the Spirit

Featured Guest Opening Remarks: 


Beth Burgess, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

• Connections between Harriet Beecher Stowe's life and modern emancipation
• Stowe lived from 1811 until 1896. She had limited lifestyle options. She lived in the confines of women of her time. 
• As a Beecher she had a great upbringing 
• Her emancipation, or liberation of the spirit came through her writing.
• She used her writing to encourage others to create positive change. 
• We know that Abraham Lincoln checked out A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin during the time that he prepared the Emancipation Proclamation.
• She was inspired not only by what she lived through, she was inspired by slavery, anti-slavery movements, education, women's suffrage, the Reconstruction. 
• Gardening was a hobby of Stowe's. This was a lifelong hobby. She wrote that it was a "healing place for the soul". It brought her into a place of calm, to remove her from her career. 
• The international impact of what she did was vast. The women of Great Britain invited her after the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. She was like a "rock star" there. A 26 volume petition of half a million women's signatures lives at the Stowe Center and shows her life's work. 
• Stowe promoted Southern economic recovery and encouraged Northerners to go down to Florida as a rustic getaway. She lived there during the winter and promoted and encouraged educational development. 
• She painted and was inspired by what she wrote, where she travelled, what she thought of. 
• The gardens here show what she wrote about gardens. 
• Stowe had a spirit that could not be brought down and gave her causes some weight. 

Judy Dworin, Judy Dworin Performance Project

• The creative act is an act of affirmation of self, of one's place in the world. That is empowering and liberating.
• We say these expressions to ourselves and other people. That dialogue is powerful.
• An inmate at York Correctional Institution. "I am not a wasted life, I am talented...art has allowed me to transend these walls, with or without permission." 
• The act of creating allows us to push beyond boundaries, it offers us possibilities.
• Creativity is within all of us. 
• Ask my students to write about their own inner prison, it makes us look within. When we look at that we start a process of emancipation we didn't know we had to do. 
• There are pressures of achievement that hold us back. 
• Finding the beauty in the muck, that is what creativity allows. Digging down deep, something says "yes". 
• Art transforms us and hopefully it moves others.
• Meditations from a Garden Seat: My husband and I saw a button with a Stowe quote that "gardens are a place of healing for the soul" when we took a tour at the Stowe Center and then we saw all of her paintings. I worked with the women at York on gardens and this added to our work. 
• The garden is a place of meaning for both Stowe and the women of York. 
• It was a challenging connection to make. 
• Joan Hedrick (Pulitzer Prize winner biographer of Stowe) is the voice of Stowe in the performance. 
• *Comparison between Stowe's writing and the writing of women at York Correctional Institute*
• You might discover out of us weeds there are pretty little flowers inside. 
• The creative spirit lives within the walls of York and calls for us to reconsider justice. 
• "You may restrict my movement but my mind runs free."

Group Discussion: 
How do you get from a creative spark to something that you can put to action or bring out?

• Listen to the most urgent ideas, thats the one you need to listen to. Write about it, draw it, find the medium that allows you to express and communicate. Play is the feeding ground of creation. We learn so much as children from play. We forget about that as we grow older. 
• Refining it and working on it until it is where it needs to be is important. 

Is it important to have a quiet place to create? How do we shut things out? 

• The Stowe Center garden 
• Sometimes the more we try to get it, the further away it gets
• One of the hardest balances to find it carving out time with yourself.
• Carving out space whether physical or metaphorical and leaving that open no matter what. 
• We don't make enough appointments with ourselves. 
• Creating the space and then having the spontaneous energy is a difficult balance. 
• Our society does not value this time enough because it is not concrete enough, though innovation is critical. 
• It's a practice

How many women participated in Meditations, how did they come to be chosen.

• Each year 25-35 women. 
• 2/3 of the women continue and 1/3 are new. 
• The selection process is by application, they write in a writing sample and we select based on the staff and the application. There are 1,000 women at York and 32 women participate, but 500 women are in the audience.
• The work is honest, raw, and impactful. It is very hopeful. 
• The more time they are in the process, the deeper they go. 
• Some have started to write about their crimes now and that is probably one of the hardest places for them to go. 

Is there an outlet for women without you there?

• It is organized and supervised. 
• There are other arts activities, but they could not just go paint in the art room, there is not any kind of freedom in that way. 

This makes me think about people that are living in shelters or a tent in Haiti. There is that garden that we all need to create. I hope that the women at York are encouraged that they are not the only ones that are imprisoned. 

• They get that 
• They also see a reality to prison, but none the less they see that internal sense. 

Play is not part of the expectation for adults. Things that I did when I was young come back now when I play with my child. How do we find our own time?

• Taking time for ourselves, even taking a walk and feeling present in that walk is important. 
• We are conditioned to try and make everything work
• Our lives are so busy. We try to make things happen, rather than letting things happen
• Finding likeminded people to work with is important. 
• Being inspired by others
• Sharing with others and interacting with others that are inspired by what you are doing. 
• Being inspired by those you work with feeds your own sense of where you're going.
• Self preservation is important: Taking time to do things for nothing but ourselves, living in that moment. Finding things we like to do with people that feed all of our interests. This makes us feel whole again and makes us feel positive. 

In visual arts, decorating the physical space that we are in with inspirational pieces can give us positive, self liberation. 

If you look at where Stowe would have placed her art in her house you see that she would have been inspired by that work. 

The colors of Stowe's garden were meant to create a feeling. Writing and gardening were a sense of calm for her. 

Poetry and writing are an outlet for people to get their thoughts out. 

How do you handle when some of the women say that they are not artistic? 

• Anyone who comes into the group knows that they are coming into art. 
• We work in narrative, song or dance. We also cross fertilize. Singers and invited to write, writers are invited to dance. Trying is important
• There is a community of support. Generally prison does not provide them with a community of support, but within the program there is a community of support that provides a safe place to take those risks. 
• Listening to what is possible and knowing how to open up.
• The fact that we are there listening is important. 
• In prison you are identified by your number or your last name, your voice is not important in many ways. 
• Some many of us think that our stories are unimportant, but when you dig in there are stories that are bigger than ourselves.

Do you collect data about the women or evaluated the healing afterwards?

• We try to keep in touch with the women who leave and if possible include them in the works. 
• It is not 100%. There are so many complexities. 
• It is hard when you get out of prison. There is a high rate of incarceration.

How ofter do you meet?

• We meet once a month and then more frequently leading up to the performance.
• It is a big commitment on their part.

Where is the lack of respect in prison coming from?

• There is a lot that can be positive, but the overall idea of prison is something that we need to think about.
• 95% of these people will leave and reenter the community. How do we want them to come back? 
• We have to think about what it means afterwards too. 
• There are a lot of irretrievable things that happen in prison.  
• It's the idea of what prison is supposed to be that we have to think about. 
• When you set up a system where they are known by a number or last name, that is making a statement. 
• Changing things and rehabilitating is difficult when there are budget cuts as well. 
• We are not going to change this in a day, but we need to think about what we provide to people in prison and what should be given to them before they reenter society. 
• Prison is an industry now. 
• It is not just the prison, it is also about what we are providing when people leave prison. 
• Reentry should start the day they arrive in prison. How do we assist in job finding? How do we support these people who reenter? 
• The number of years that people are asked to serve are different throughout the world. 
• There are so many changes that can be made and we need to look at it in a bigger way.

Being an educator, the way we are handling education now, using data to control rather than the human being. We have the same attitude towards children, this "out of sight, out of mind" when we send children to school. There are a lot of things that we don't want to look at, but these are human beings that we don't necessarily interact with. 

• One of the greatest things about art is that it is a life-changing experience. 
• Artists take risks to say things that people aren't saying. 
• Society does not celebrate artists that much right now. 
• We have been very fearful since 9/11 and we are trying to take too much control, art doesn't fit into that. 

Who is noticing what JDPP is doing and what the women at York are doing? Stowe changed systems, the change of JDPP is happening to individuals within a system. Is there anything that will change to systemic change?

• The Commissioner came to see the performance of the women. The Governor's wife came as well. They were all amazed. This kind of work could not spread to other prisons. 
• The fact that the arts are there indicates change. 
• Talking in situations like this, writing articles, and bringing performance work out gets ideas going
• It is beginning to be recognized. 
• It is very different from when we started.
• There are parameters that we agree with when we work with the women at York. One always walks a fine line. We have to agree with things that we wouldn't always agree with. 
• You can work within the prison to create change within or you can be outside making it public and vocal. You cannot do both.

Was there resistance in starting?

• Everyone starts with a skeptical sense. 
• First there was no video, then there was video taping allowed. 
• There has been a lot of change that has occurred over time. 
• There is a balance.

How has the experience changed the women of your team that are going into the prison to work with the incarcerated women? 

• It has changed all of us. It has changed our perception of freedom and justice.
• Prisons are a microcosm for so many things
• When we started we had no idea of how it would affect me. One huge strand of what we do is working with the incarcerated or those impacted by incarceration.
• It is a processing time to travel to the prison and home from the prison. 
• The whole notion of freedom has become wider. 
• The first time I met someone my age it was the most impactful (statement from a JDPP staff member). Seeing them perform is amazing, they could have been my best friend. That was the moment, that is what changes you. 

The words of the women provide this liberation for all of us. The arts have a wonderful power and they make us realize that we are just as capable of making a bad decision, but that the seeds of transformation are spreading. There are bright opportunities to make this type of change.

• A lot of the change we are making isn't measurable by data. 
• There are a lot of great people doing great things that cannot be measured that way. 
• Beware of the gloom and doom picture. There is more than meets the eyes.

Change comes one person at a time. 

The discipline that comes with the performance. The rest of the day for the women at York is regimented with no choice. With this outlet they have choices. Through discipline they are able to make work that is good and make that work better. This has been liberating for them. 

We can be skeptical of art, but there is a lot of risk and there was a lot of work that came. 

The value of showing up and practicing our craft is important. 

There is some real healing that is happening here. Art, music and movement are very healing. If we could do that with younger people that might be a outlet away from the pipeline to incarceration. 

Cutting off the arts are cutting off a lifeline. 

Have you considered mentoring people that would like to work with other groups such as immigrants or young people?

JDPP has a mentoring program with young people who have parents who are incarcerated. 

JDPP would like to teach other teaching artists. Training people that want to do this type of work is in our plans. 

Art is a courageous thing, it is exposing, especially if it is an emotional place. When you go there, how do you handle that emotion?

• In the last year a counselor from mental health follows up with the women. 
• A group every other week with the women helps them get to the emotions that come up that have never been tapped before. 
• All of the teachers that go in know that the arts are therapeutic, but we are not therapists. The counselor allows them some follow up. 

Inspiration to Action:

• Go see Meditation from a Garden Seat
• The use of self expression to inspire action through writing and art. 
• Creativity is empowering and liberating. 
• Art transforms us
• Take time to yourself, be present
• Feed your spirit
• Find likeminded people to work with
• Challenge cultural assumptions
• contribute to efforts of systemic change
• support a culture of creativity and innovation
• Challenge your own notion of freedom. 

Confront Prejudice: Build Community

Workshop Facilitated by Dr. William A. Howe

What makes us distrust differences and separate “Us” from “Them”?  Fear of what we don’t understand? Deep-rooted biases?

Dr. William A. Howe is the program manager for culturally responsive education, multicultural education, bullying & harassment, gender equity and civil rights at the Connecticut State Department of Education.  He is the founder of the New England Conference on Multicultural Education (NECME) and Past President of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME).

Dr. Howe has been an educator for more than 35 years and has given more than 400 workshops, lectures and keynotes on diversity, multicultural education and organizational development. He is a regular presenter at state and national conferences and has appeared on both radio and television to discuss diversity issues.

Opening Q & A with the Audience
How many of you remember the day JFK was assassinated?
When did the Vietnam War end?
How many of you were born after the Vietnam War?

Often we don’t know our history. If we don’t know our history of where we came from we repeat our mistakes. There are so many opportunities for us to learn our history and this is why we can’t underestimate the importance of keeping places like the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center open.

Racism can be very subtle. We have to be watching for it.

Time for a history lesson: 

• Columbus did not discover America. How do you discover a country that had 10 to 100 million people living there? How do we explain this to a young child? Here’s a scenario: What if someone walked into your house during dinner, put a flag in the middle of your dining room and claimed it for their own? What would you do? How do you explain that?  
• Up to 11-12 million people were captured in Africa, brought to the United States and enslaved. One out of 8 did not make it. 
• During the Civil War, many African Americans signed up to fight for the Union. Many were killed in battle, sent to the front lines to blanket the white soldiers. 
• During the era of Reconstruction there was the promise of 40 acres and a mule. The object was to “make things right”. 
• During the 19th and 20th century, women fought and died to obtain equality in this country. We didn’t “give” women the right to vote, they fought for it. 
• Era of Jim Crow. Young people today have not experienced what many in this country today have. Some signs showing segregation can still be seen in the South although not enforced, they are just there. These laws were not just targeting African Americans; they targeted Hispanics and Mexicans too.
• The Great Migration was the largest movement of people in history. 
• 1924 Indian Citizenship Act grants Native Americans citizenship, interesting that Native Americans were here before those who created this law, granting them citizenship. 
• During the Great Depression, African Americans (often first fired, never hired) were some who suffered the most. 
• During World War II, African American soldiers liberated many of the concentration camps. Following the war, President Truman desegregates the troops
• Also during World War II, this country experienced Japanese-American internment, said to be for “safety”. Even orphanages were gathered for camps.
• Brown vs. Board of Ed, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Sit-ins, the Little Rock Nine. The faces in the famous photo of the Little Rock Nine are similar to those we can even see today. 
• We finally have the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 
• Assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. 
• The Stonewall Riots took place when cops went too far at a gay bar in Greenwich Village and riots break out. This is one of the beginnings of the Gay Rights Movement. Stonewall Speakers are here in CT.
• This year is the 40th anniversary of Title IX. There was a day when girls could only be cheerleaders, when only male teachers got tenure. 
• Lau vs. Nichols: laws on Chinese American education. 
• Death of Vincent Chen in 1982, at the height of Japanese imports. He was out for his bachelor party in Detroit. Autoworkers started harassing him about being Japanese (even though he was Chinese). He did not fight back. The autoworkers beat him to death. Two men never spent a day in jail; they were fined $3,780. This was the beginning of the Asian civil rights. 
• We jump to the Inauguration of President Barack Obama and we are hearing people say that we live in a “post racial society”. 
• The first act that President Obama signed was the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Prior to this you could only be convicted of a hate crime if you were trying to prevent someone from using a public accommodation. Now you can be convicted for more reasons. 
• What does the future hold for us? We have to teach each other and our children. We have to keep those images you saw in the exhibit  THEM: Images of Separation alive. 

Activity 1: 
Who wrote the Preamble to the US Constitution?
All white, wealthy, men, of a certain age, many slave owners, politicians, lawyers, and Protestant. Who wasn’t in that room? Women, non-whites, young people…

Part 1:
Along the wall, a scale of 1-100% was created. Participants grouped themselves along the wall to show how far they think the United States has come in holding true to the Preamble.
A majority believed that we have come 50% of the way; though some chose 75% and even 0%.
Your prospective is your prospective. It is important to think about where our views come from.

• Why 0%? When you use “we the people” you should be representing “Everyone” when you look at immigration, education, economy; there is no “we the people”. 
• Why 25%? How can we be past 25% when the 1% hold so much power. We are all indentured and slaves to a system that makes us afraid of each other. It is designed that way. 
• Why 50%? During Civil Rights Movement it was 75%. Since then we have fallen back. Thinking about Muslim friends, drones, lack of transparency. During the Civil Rights Movement, we thought there would be equal rights for all. Poverty is so prominent in this area, we haven’t gotten there. We are only as successful as our brothers and sisters. We have so much technology and we use it for Angry Birds. In Egypt, they used technology for a revolution.
• Why 75%? I looked at this as a process. I think that there are more people today that are included in making the choices. If we don’t think we are moving forward then where are we going? We have not made all the progress we should have. Since 1964, I think that only Aunt Jemima was on TV, now we have a black President. We have made a lot of progress, be honest. 

I grew up as a Southerner reciting the Preamble. The 60s presented a hopeful time. What it feels like to go from a period of hopefulness to a time when we don’t trust our neighbors. We send an e-mail and don’t know who might be able to read it. We have our Simon Legrees here, just with different names, that are stifling the promises of liberty. There is a sense of loss.

There is distrust. There is a system. When I was growing up I used the term “Jap” rather than Japanese. There are laws that are made; things change; times change; people change. The Constitution sets a path that will ensure certain ideas. It has more to do with the input of everyone.

The Constitution was created by people who were imperfect. When the Constitution was written it was based on other documents. The right to life, liberty and personal property was in the original draft. The problem is that the system we are in perpetuates itself. This is why we are here now. The system keeps us from understanding.

Part 2:
Where would male, African American, Hartford High School students put themselves along the same scale?
There was a huge shift of people who moved to the lower percentage.
Why? Bullying happens, not enough money, being followed in stores, negative propaganda.

Part 3:
This is a big election year; imagine you are a member of Congress. Where would members of Congress stand along this same scale?
There was a large 75% ratio.
Those closest to 100% said thought that Congress thinks life is pretty good.
If they do wrong they are not necessarily accountable.
Those in the middle of the scale said that members of Congress know who controls the funds and who puts them in office. There are a lot of people that represent us that are as frustrated as people in this room. They could not imagine a Congressman would say we have come 100% of the way. They can’t get done what they want to as well. What we need to understand is that we do have the power to control Congress. WE are the government.

Perspectives can change when you live in someone else’s shoes for a while.

Part of our problem is that we don’t listen to each other; we talk over each other. Dr. Howe stated that he is so thankful to the Stowe Center for opening everyone up to these types of discussions. A quote lead the group into a discussion and activity: “This is how great changes begin, when people begin talking to each other about their experiences, hopes, and fears.” – by Margaret Wheatley in Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future.

Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. Most adults listen actively for 17 seconds. 75% of the words that we hear are ignored.
Active listening is used to help someone else formulate his or her thoughts. We might follow up with a question when we are listening to someone.
In Constructivist listening, one person talks and the other listens without thinking about what they are going to say next.

Activity 2: 
Find a partner that you don’t know, someone who is your opposite, someone that you don’t know. One talks first while the other listens. When you listen do not think about your own stories, do not interrupt. Scenarios of intolerance were presented to the group. Each partner would respond to the prompt at the end of the scenario.

It was a very active group, with great conversation. A few pairs had difficulty not engaging in active listening, nodding their heads, agreeing with their partner, or even replying. Others made direct eye contact and stood or sat still. After 60 seconds the talker and the listener switched roles.

Afterwards, many stated that they had the same views or similar views, but all saw the value in giving the other person a chance to share their point of view without the fear or thought that someone else would take over the conversation, whether their views were the same or different.

Dr. Howe’s closing message came from his wife. His wife, a psychotherapist shared with him that most patients are afflicted with negative people in their lives. Her advice, and his alike, get rid of those friends, they are not your friends. Life is tough, it is too easy to dwell in the negative. We can only make change if we think positively. 10 people will talk to you tomorrow, 9 will be positive, 1 of them will be negative and you will lose sleep over what that one person said. Surround yourself with positivity.