Last Day of Sessions

In addition to today being the last day of sessions in the Young Leaders Dialogue with America, it is also Tolerance and Diversity day. We started with a presentation called "Chipping Away at Intolerance in America" from Wayne Drash and Robert Johnson, of CNN. I don't actually watch CNN all that often, as I find it annoying that they run audience reactions and tweets (often stupid) along with actual analysis by trained and experienced journalists, but I was still interested in what they had to say.

The presentation was focused on black and white race relations. Wayne Drash is originally from Mississippi, and discovered papers documenting his family's ownership of slaves. This led to a lengthy (and continuing) search for the descendants of his ancestor's former slaves, which Robert has assisted in. Generally, he has found the exchanges to be positive encounters, as the descendants of slaves have been grateful to receive the information that Wayne provides. There were, apparently, several awkward situations in Mississippi with some racist (and white) "gentlemen."

My only problem with the presentation was that Wayne referred to slavery as "The Holocaust of American History." I took note of that as being a term that I had never heard in conjunction with slavery, and I was interested when one of the other participants stood up during the Q&A and essentially said, I'm from Austria, I'm sensitive to your use of the term Holocaust, is it really appropriate? Many of the other participants (particularly the Europeans) seemed to echo his concern. Wayne responded that it was how many of the people that he has interacted with in his search had referred to slavery, so he had adopted the term. I, however, did some super-fast googling. There is not a single hit for "Holocaust of American History," relating to slavery or otherwise, so I remain skeptical of the term. I guess that now there will be a Google hit.

The next session was 90 Minutes Radio Free Europe with Radio Liberty. The session began with Jeff Gedmin, the President of Radio Liberty. He discussed areas of the world that still lack access to the media and freedom of the press. Following his introduction, the group watched a documentary on Chechnya (The Dark Side of the World), which was filmed ten years ago. Terror, widespread corruption, and economic devastation, however, are still very much a part of daily life. The Political Rights Score for Chechnya is 7, as is the Civil Liberties Score, indicating that the status of the country is Not Free. The question and answer section of the panel was really interesting, particularly with regard to US and EU policies impacting and including Russia and human rights violations.

And now it's time for lunch. And for KATIE THORNE to come!!!!

P.S. Lots of bow ties among panelists today. That's probably not in any way significant, but that's my observation.