Salem Nonviolence Forum Seen as Means to Town Hall Tolerance

The event is free to the public.

Some of our most precious citizens are the ones who need healthcare coverage the most.

(SALEM, Ore.) - With all the commotion in the air eminating from recent Healthcare Town Hall meetings, this Sunday morning will offer a counterpoint for a more peaceful public dialogue.

The restoral of civil conversation is a key component of those who seek nonviolence.

Terri Shofner of Portland, a longtime Gandhi adherent, will be speaking Sunday at 10:30 a.m. to share her recipe about how to achieve those ends.

Her address will deal with how divisive conversations make all of us jeopardize true problem-solving and merely muddy the waters.

Ms. Shofner will also outline a point-by-point plan to foster mutual cooperation between would-be adversaries so that mutual goals can be achieved through reasonable give-and-take.

The model supplies an alternative to the usual winners vs. losers competition of battering one another.

Hosting the program is the adult education team of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at 5090 NE Center St. in Salem. Audience input is welcomed.

There are no admission charges.

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Salem-News.com Community Writer Lee Coyne is the founder of Salem's Peace Mural Task Force and is both a writer-poet and amateur cartoonist. He loves to draw out human potential. Lee brings our readers stories from his combined career of journalism and gerontology, and explains that these paths shaped his values. This writer-therapist often views the world as the masks of comedy and tragedy placed upon the scales of justice. For him, optimism inevitably wins. "Lyrical Lee" has traveled to 30 nations aboard and was once a press intern at the UN. His first published article was in The NY Daily News in '59, dealing with the need for integrity in public office.

He also launched the nation's first tele-conference on health education for shut-ins, created the Eldermentors project in VA to pair retirees with immigrant students needing role models, and was the main catalyst behind CCTV's "Public Public" panel show here in Salem. Lee received his BA in International Relations and an MSW in community organization. He currently serves as a member of Salem's Library Advisory Board. To send Lee an email, please write to this address: To send Lee an email, please write to this address: notcoy@netzero.net