Peace, progress, equality, respect

By DEVIN WEEKS

Hagadone News Network

COEUR d’ALENE — Working weekends as an obstetrics nurse long before she became North Idaho College's vice president of instruction, Lita Burns realized something profound.

She would experience birth up to four or five times a day, babies born to mothers from all different walks of life.

"They may all look different, but when that baby is born, when that baby comes out of the womb, you realize that we are all equal," Burns said. "Those babies come out of the womb identically equal. Just face value. Equal."

This led her to wonder: "If we, as humans, come into this world as equals, how is it we get to a place where we treat people so unequally, so disrespectfully, disrespecting who they are and where they came from?"

"I have this interest from my practice as a nurse to understand why it is that we change how we treat people when we are really, truly all equal,” she said. "What I’ve come to understand … is that it really is the community with which people are raised that I think influences their approach to other people.

"That community might be as narrow as their own nuclear family, or it could be as broad as the region or nation that they are a part of that tremendously influences how you react and interact with other people."

She said education holds the key to better understanding of human rights, "and it’s the understanding of human rights that holds a key to our respecting of human rights."

The rights, hardships and hope of all humans were discussed in great detail and from varying perspectives Tuesday during NIC's third annual Diversity Symposium, which had the theme of "Exploring Race and Ethnicity."

The symposium included an entire day of activities, including displays of student art, a performance by the Interactive Justice Choir, roundtable discussions, peace studies and Mickey Mouse Monopoly that focused on social constructs and bias.

The symposium culminated with an evening panel — "Peaceful Progress in Human Rights" — that was attended by roughly 40 people. The panel featured Burns, keynote speaker and retired NIC instructor Tony Stewart, Advanced Management Strategies owner and consultant Elva Allan and Coeur d'Alene Tribal Chairman Chief Allan.

Elva, who is married to Chief and has worked with the Coeur d'Alene Tribe for 20 years, shared some of the struggles, strategies and goals for the Tribe and its future generations.

"We need to have hope. Education for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe is one huge avenue of hope for them," she said. "We need to keep the hope alive that people will want to have the discussion, and that those within the community and the Coeur d'Alene tribal kids and natives in the community will keep the hope alive, they will get through school, they will come back and make a difference. But also that we can work with allies … to keep that message out there that equality is critical, it's what's needed to keep us in peace and growing and not taking steps back."

Stewart, a local human rights powerhouse with a resume of accomplishments several decades long, presented in his speech several examples of social injustices in American history and their journeys to today — the generations of pain that followed the Civil War, the Trail of Tears, Japanese internment camps of World War II and others.

"From the earliest stages of human existence, race relations have been one of the most challenging struggles to create a culture in which all races and ethnic/nationalities experience true equity," Stewart said. "Racism has led to the enslavement of millions of people, devastating wars, unjust laws and untold harm to the human condition."

And yet, there is hope.

Each panel member provided examples of how individuals can be agents of positive change: standing up to injustice, asking questions, having one-on-one conversations, showing others mercy and respect.

"At the end of the day, we have to be human," Chief said. "It's up to all of us. Look in the mirror."