ipscomb with me to nairobi, kenya. i made this trip years ago in my ... buy new top soil, ......

Abriendo PuertasOpening Doors

Engaging the Community in

Conversations of Significance

U N I V E R S I T YIPSCOMB

April 30, 2009

hispanic forum booklet EDIT:Layout 1 3/17/10 8:13 AM

On April 30, 2009 a ground-breakingforum was held at Lipscomb University.The university’s first Hispanic Forumbrought together leaders from theNashville community to engage indeliberate dialogue about Nashville’sfuture as a multicultural city. A result ofthe day’s conversation was thedevelopment of specific action steps toincrease Hispanics’ access to communityservices.

Abriendo Puertas (Opening Doors),Lipscomb University’s first HispanicForum, brought together more than 100Middle Tennessee public officials,teachers, parents, school administrators,community and business leaders. Theevent featured group discussions withthe goal of improving access toimportant resources for underservedHispanic populations through interactivediscussion sessions.

This publication serves as a reminder ofthe day’s significant dialogue. On thefollowing pages you will find excerptsfrom Lipscomb University PresidentL. Randolph Lowry’s keynote address aswell as the action steps developed atthe forum.


President L. Randolph Lowry

Thank you so very much for coming to Lipscomb University for another of whatwe call “conversations of significance.” Several months ago we brought healthcare leaders together— about a hundred of them in this very room. A few weeksago we brought together nonprofit organizational leaders in this room. In each ofthose conversations, we challenge ourselves as we think about our community— a community that we love, that we have tremendous hope for and that needsour very best thinking.

I want to start by asking you if you will go with me a long way away to a verydifferent culture. Travel with me to Nairobi, Kenya. I made this trip years ago in mylife, in the world of conflict management. I began working with a significant conflictin a church body. About the fourth or fifth day, absolutely exhausted, I walked out inthe lobby and sat down. An elderly Kenyan gentleman came and sat next to me. Hesaid two things that I will never forget. He said, “You Americans deal withconflict differently than we Kenyans do. For us conflict is like the field. Conflictis the weeds growing up. When you Americans see weeds in the fields, you just

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Address at the Lipscomb University Hispanic Forum

Thursday, April 30, 2009

L. Randolph LowryLipscomb University President


buy new top soil, bring it in, spread it over all those weeds, and think that youhave prepared for the future. We Kenyans know that before the field will beproductive, you must pull the weeds.”

As we sat there a little bit longer, he said something else to me. He said, “You need tohelp us get this conflict resolved because we need to walk together. In Africa, if twopeople on a journey are reconciled with each other, they enjoy the journey, walk sideby side and encourage each other along the way. But if the two people are in conflict,one walks ahead and one walks behind. The journey is very, very different.”

I know that illustration isn’t taken from Hispanic culture. It has taken us toAfrica and back, yet there might be an application of those two messages. Beforewe can plant the field and expect productivity, sometimes we have to do someweed-pulling. That’s hard work, but when the weeds are pulled and the field isplanted, and the new crop comes up that work is worth it. In the Kenyanculture, walking together has great significance. I believe walking together hasgreat significance in this culture as well. Perhaps it won’t be as literal, but itcertainly can be as real.

We live in a community that is changing. Nashville as a community has changed;Nashville as a community is changing; and Nashville as a community will continueto change. One of the ways it is changing forever is in the sense of being a cross-cultural community. One out of every seven people in Nashville was born notjust outside of Nashville or outside of Tennessee, but outside of the UnitedStates. Eighty or ninety different languages are spoken in our schools. Definableethnic neighborhoods are emerging. Given this reality, what questions might webe asking? Let me just suggest three of them.

First, are we going to live lives clustered in separate communities, or are wegoing to open the door to lives of connectedness? I begin with the reality ofwhere I live. When I go to the supermarket at ten o’clock at night, there often is

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“Are we going to expend limited resources of time and money

on issues that confront us or open the door to dialogue on the

interests that drive us? Why don’t we refocus our energy and

refocus our effort… on what’s actually driving people,

motivating them, causing them to feel so passionate…”

— L. Randolph LowryPresident, Lipscomb University


not another white person in the store. If I go east a couple of miles to NolensvilleRoad, I can find food with Mexican and Spanish influences that remind me ofhome, I realize I don’t speak the language, though, and some of the people theredon’t speak mine. If I go west, to Green Hills Mall, I feel like I’m in OrangeCounty, California. In Nashville an individual can choose where he or she goesand can live a life that is completely segregated, or one can chose to live a lifefull of the cultural influences and blessings the city offers. Everyone of us willmake a decision about what kind of life we live in Nashville. Do we want it to benarrow and segregated and miss those stretching experiences that happen cross-culturally? Or, do we want to live in a community where we will go to whateverextent and work as hard as necessary to enrich our lives with that diversity?

The second question is are we going to expend our limited resources of time andmoney on issues that confront us or open doors to dialogue on the interests thatdrive us? The two key words are issues and interests. The elephant in the room isthe “I” word — immigration. With the immigration issue today, the reality is wemight find right on both sides, legitimate perspectives on both sides, andconcerned people on both sides. We might find people driven by things aboutwhich they feel strongly on both sides.

Both sides can’t be right if you’re going to address it as an issue. Using thatapproach, sooner or later certain kinds of decisions will have to be made thatexclude or include people. Government will go about the business of makinggoals, and that kind of problem solving probably is not going to ever work. Sowhat if, instead of dealing with the issue about what the next piece of legislationought to be, we said, “Hold on a second. If they’re both right, why don’t werefocus our energy and refocus our effort not on the screaming that’s taking

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Lipscomb University President L. Randolph Lowry announced the 2009 Saint Thomas Health Services Nursing AdvantageScholarship recipients at the Hispanic Forum April 30. This year’s recipients and their hometowns are: Abril Amparan,McMinnville, Tenn.; Karina Galeas, Antioch, Tenn.; Dalia Harmon, Madison, Tenn.; and Maria Mata, Franklin, Tenn.


place between the sides, but on what’s actually driving those people, motivatingthem, causing them to feel so passionate about whatever it is we’re talkingabout?” There have been moments in history where that concept has made ahuge difference.

Probably the most influential aspect of Jimmy Carter’s presidency was the bringingtogether of two world leaders — Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt, and MenachemBegin, the prime minister of Israel, at Camp David. President Carter naively believedthat he could help people who have been warriors against each other all of their livesfigure out how they and their nations could get along. Who would have bet on it? Inthe first few days of that meeting each side packed to go home several times, butthey hung in there for 13 days. They did something that is usually not done in thatsetting, nor has it been done in the immigration debate today. Carter told Sadat andBegin, “Don’t tell me anymore what the issues are. I know you both want the SinaiDesert so badly you’re willing to fight war after war after war over it. I know youhave leaders who grew up in your nation as warriors and all of that passion and all ofthat anger is still focused on the other side. That’s the issue. But what’s driving eachof you?” Menachem Begin replied, “It’s a matter of our security. We have alwaysneeded a proper zone between us and the Egyptians because they are always comingover and threatening us. We will fight to the death to get it.” President Sadatanswered, “The Sinai Desert has always been something that we controlled and aplace where we flew our flag. For us, it’s a matter of sovereignty, and we will fightuntil the end.”

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“Bob Dylan has a line where he says, if you

aren’t busy being born, you’re busy dying.

Great cities like Nashville are cities that are

constantly reinventing themselves, that are en-

ergized by new people, and that’s what we’ve

got going here. And we’ve got it going in ways

that other places don’t have. We’ve got it going

because people move here from all over the

world… We’ve got it because we’ve got the

music industry….We’ve got it because we have

great universities like Lipscomb. We’ve got it

because we care.”— Karl Dean

Mayor, Metropolitan Government

of Nashville and Davidson County


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Clockwise from top: Luz Belleza-Bins, of the Metropolitan Nashville Health Department, and Carrie Thornthwaite, associateprofessor of education at Lipscomb University, participate in a break-out discussion. Father Joseph Breen, of Saint EdwardCatholic Church and Pilar Arrieta, of Americhoice, also participate in dialogue during Hispanic Forum break-out sessions. Dr.Candice McQueen, left, dean of the Lipscomb College of Education; Avi Poster, Chair of the Coalition for Education about Im-migration; and Renata Soto, co-founder and executive director of Conexio�n Ame�ricas.


That was the first time someone had stopped to ask, “What’s motivating this?” All ofa sudden one side said security, and the other said sovereignty. Within hours, theyhad the Camp David Accords. As far as I know, there has not been a shot firedbetween those two nations since 1970. What happened after 50 years of war and 13days of work? What caused those leaders to say, “I will do the unthinkable?” Whatcaused the change was that instead of arguing about the issue, they began tounderstand and work with the motivation of the two. There might be a lesson therefor us. Do we want to spend our time and energy on the argument, or should westep back and acknowledge the larger things in terms of importance?” If we go tothat interest level and spend time there, we would do something much more creative.The difference is between arguing over issues and working, like Jimmy Carter, did onthe interests.

The third question is simply this: are we going to focus on politics or open thedoor to focus on people? I do want to suggest to you our political system isabsolutely broken because it’s based on a model that is out of date. The model isadversarial in nature, and competitive oration oftentimes gets a bill passed butmay not ever touch the problem that needs to be resolved.

Senator (Lamar) Alexander was on campus a couple weeks ago, and he couldbring 12 file cases stacked to the ceiling to help us understand all the rules thathave been passed to govern institutions like this university. Maybe some of thoseare necessary, but Senator Alexander thinks that it is ridiculous to place thatburden on universities just because somebody came up with another idea thatlegislation should pass.

Sometimes we have bills to do something not very well thought out. Justbecause a bill will pass does not mean it is particularly helpful. I think there issomething else that is harder for us to deal with, so we default to politics. Thereis something else going on that perhaps is a bit more profound. Perhaps if ourlegislature could somehow move away from its politics, from its special interests,from its need to go back home and get votes, and from all those things thatsometimes motivate it, and think instead about the people it is trying to serve,we might have some really different outcomes.

At Camp David, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat were ready to go home. Thenegotiations had broken down, and Jimmy Carter was absolutely despondent.Then Carter remembered that Menachem Begin had said, “Mr. President, beforewe leave, would you mind autographing some photographs of yourself that I cangive to my grandchildren?” There in the quiet, with absolutely no idea what elseto do, Carter sat down at his desk and began to write notes to Menachem Begin’s

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grandchildren on pictures of himself . The President of the United Statesknocked on the door of the Prime Minister’s room. He said, “Prime Minister, I’veaddressed these to each of your grandchildren. I want you to take them home.”The Prime Minister of Israel began to cry because he realized at that momentthat the negotiations were not for some political end. These negotiations werefor the lives of his grandchildren. Two days later they had the Camp DavidAccords.

Somewhere in all of the conversations, in all of the noise, in all of theadvocacies, there is room for our legislature, our Metro Council, and all of thoseinstitutions that we have created to stop screaming at each other long enough tothink about the people they serve. So if I dreamed just a little bit, I’d love to seea bill from our legislature that said we are funding today the Davidson Group inevery county in Tennessee. Wouldn’t it be an interesting piece of legislation thatsays, “We anticipate this year there will be thousands of people who simply havelunch with people who look and act a little different.” What if they passed apiece of legislation that says, “We are not sure that those among us in thelegislature who are biased and prejudiced, those who reflect values we don’treally have as a people, ought to get to act completely unfettered. So what wewill do is think about how we reflect values that are more appropriate.” Or,maybe they could pass a piece of legislation that says, “We want to recognizethat one of the most precious things we have in Tennessee is the possibility ofcross-cultural competence, so we are going to pass a piece of legislation thatfunds for every school in the state a brand new curriculum — curriculum thatteaches how to read and how to write and how to do arithmetic, but studentswill not be educated in our state unless they are also cross-culturallycompetent.”

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“We need to find new and innovative

ways to reach across the divide. The

language divide, the ethnicity divide, the

community divide, the religious divide.”

— Ronal SerpasChief of Police

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department


The point is simply whether we are going to try to resolve this politically, or arewe going to resolve this as people? There is no hope at all if we think unity isuniformity. We will never be enough alike so that likeness allows us to live andwork together. We must recognize that our unity does not come from beingalike, from thinking alike, looking alike, dressing alike, or speaking alike. Ourunity comes from something much stronger and much deeper and much moreprofound. Our unity, in fact, may come from our willingness to get off ouragenda and serve each other. What is the Hispanic community in Nashvilledoing to serve the rest of the Nashville community? What is the African-American community doing to serve the rest of the community? What is theAnglo or White community in Nashville doing to serve? There is something thathappens in service to each other that will never happen in a piece of legislation,something that bonds you differently.

Let me close with the story of Larry. I went to law school for three long years inMinneapolis where we went to a small church, about 100 people. Rhonda and Iwere enthusiastic about being of service at this church, so I would lead worshipon Sunday morning. A guy by the name of Larry would come up to me and tellme that I didn’t do it very well. I would work Saturday nights getting ready tolead the musical part of worship, and he’d come up to me afterwards onSundays and say, “Well, Randy, that was okay, but it wasn’t near as good as it

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Mario Ramos, left, of Mario Ramos, PLLC, and Rafael Fernandez, of the El Protector Program with the Metropolitan NashvillePolice Department, engage in a discussion of issues relating to government and law enforcement.


could be.” The next week, I’d teach a Bible class, and he’d say, “Well, you know,you have some good thoughts there but they really weren’t the right focuscoming out of that scripture.” So there I was, just a young kid, trying to getthrough law school, work full-time, go to church and be of some service, andevery single time I went, whatever I did, Larry came to speak with me.

Then Rhonda became pregnant with John and it was a hard pregnancy. OneMonday afternoon I came home from work tired. I had to study all night and goto class the next day. There was a knock on the door. It was Larry! He was nowmaking house calls! But he was standing there holding a big tray, his wifestanding behind him. On the tray were pots and pans. Larry said words that I’llnever forget, “Randy, I know you kids are having a tough time. I know it’s hardto get the baby here, and you’re working awfully hard. I didn’t have to worktoday, so I stayed home and cooked dinner for you. I wonder if we could comein and share it with you.” In that moment our relationship forever changed, butnot because Larry and I would agree on anything. Uniformity is not unity. It’s notgoing to happen that way. There has to be something deeper and moreprofound, and I think one piece of it is our willingness to serve each other.

Three questions: I hope they somehow give you a sense of the tapestry of thisongoing dialogue. Thank you so much.

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“We started a dialogue today. It’s a

great opening step, but we need to

follow through. But you can’t hope

for follow-through until you con-

vene for the first step,” he said.

“Lipscomb University helped us

gather a passionate group and now

we have to take the next step and

act on it.”

— Gregg RamosPresident, Conexion Americas


• Improve messaging. Help target groups understand the economicimpact of immigrant population, closure of businesses, loss of jobs,families who are forced to relocate, etc.

• Request Coalition for Education on Immigration (CEI) to convenea group to create a business “for all of us.”

• Expand/join Davidson Group.

• Engage the chambers of commerce and the Convention & Visitor’sBureau (CVB) to reach out to all communities to inform/educate.

• Ask that Lipscomb University measure the impact of immigrantcontributions on the greater Nashville community to validate thetalk.

• Bring all businesses together for a community event.

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BUsINess AND BANkINGRecommendations and Action steps

President Lowry addresses more than 100 participants in the opening keynote discussion at Lipscomb University’s firstHispanic Forum.


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• Develop a key forum that will provide cohesion and collaborationamong groups. Identify members. Find and cultivate championswho are not primary stakeholders.

• Encourage Metro Nashville Public Schools to begin cultural aware-ness training starting next school year.

• Put in place certification of interpreters and translators.

• Make the professional certification process easier for internationalprofessionals.

• Initiate service activities that engage many cultural communities inservice projects together.

eDUCATIONRecommendations and Action steps

Dr. Jim Thomas, special assistant to the president and professor of communication at Lipscomb University, discusses educationand family services issues with Dr. LaWanna Shelton, executive director of ELL, and Ruben DePena, community outreachmanager, non-English background populations, both with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.


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• Encourage Hispanic Media to advertise community events, town hallmeetings, etc.o Improved communication between community and government.

• Communicate concerns of new programs that work against our mis-sion with appropriate legislators.

• Look back at previous recommendations from past administrationthat addresses these same issues.

• Create a standard for proving identification.o As a city, highlight the importance and public safety value ofeveryone having access to government-issued or government ac-cepted ID, regardless of immigration status.

• Start a conversation to reach our to consulates.o Local government must push the invitation.

• VOTE; be involved in the process even if you can’t vote.

• Elect someone from your community.

• Cultivate candidates.

• Increase awareness of Dream Act and other relevant legislation.

• Increase communication and education.o Create more forums for disclosure and education of issues.

• Provide Councilmen with names of constituents to increase discus-sion and dialogue.

GOVeRNMeNT AND LAW eNFORCeMeNTRecommendations and Action steps


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• Establish a Task Force (Community Partnership; Ethnically &Economically Diverse).o Mission: Open access to health care.o Identify all stakeholders (public and private).o Consolidate efforts and optimize resources.o Disseminate information.o Launch an educational campaign.• Educate the Hispanic community members.• Educate providers re: cultural awareness (bi-directional).• Emergency Room redirection to services in clinics andpharmacies.• Educate providers in rural areas.• Promote bilingual efforts & literacy.• Metro Nashville Public Schools.• Churches.• Media (TV, radio, internet, etc.).• Document translation.

o Promote more community involvement.o Seek more funding and plan for the allocation of these financialresources.o Establish more interpretation services in urban and rural areaso Recruit and train more culturally diverse doctors and otherhealth care providers.o Build on the “best practices” of other communities (don’treinvent any wheels).o Require certification for providers and interpreters.o Identify more ways to take services to where the people live(mobilization of services).o Eliminate logistical problems: hours of services, walk-in clinics,red tape, transportation.o Establish public services announcement in the Spanish mediarelated to preventative care/services and existing services.o Distribute publications at various community locations.

HeALTH CAReRecommendations and Action steps


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ipscomb with me to nairobi, kenya. i made this trip years ago in my ... buy new top soil, ......

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