This and That: Welcome to the working week
A link and a discussion to 'Who We Are.' Leadership Lafayette's Volunteer Expo. Get in on Tourism Week. A tribute to a neighborhood 'preservation angel'
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This and that to start the work week …
A LINK AND A DISCUSSION: ‘WHO WE ARE’
“Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” a 2022 documentary, will be the focus of a community discussion Thursday, May 11, at Ivy Tech Community College, sponsored by the Greater Lafayette’s Diversity Roundtable and nearly a dozen other organizations
Ahead of that, the groups have lined up a free link to watch the film, between now and Wednesday, to prepare.
The documentary follows Jeffrey Robinson – a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, including time as ACLU deputy legal director – as he travels the country researching lasting impacts of racism.
From the Who We Are Project’s page: “The Who We Are Project works to challenge the dominant narrative of our nation’s founding, demonstrating how slavery’s legacy has led to persistent and abiding racial inequality, and promoting education, discourse and change.”
From the local Who We Are committee: “(Robinson) asks that we speak to what was then and what is now as we face ‘our shared history’ of slavery. He says, ‘Once again, young activists in America are making us look in the mirror.’ Robinson sees our nation at a tipping point and asks, ‘What are we going to do about it?’”
If you go: The in-person community discussion will be 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 11, Ivy Hall Auditorium, 3101 S. Creasy Lane.
To watch the documentary: “Who We Are” is included now in Netflix. The local free link to watch through Wednesday is available: https://www.filmplatform.net/events/who-we-are-tippecanoe-county-public-library/. The invitation code: WWA-TCPL
Here’s the trailer for “Who We Are:”
LEADERSHIP LAFAYETTE VOLUNTEER EXPO
Looking for ways to get involved in deeper ways in Greater Lafayette? Leadership Lafayette will hold a Volunteer Expo Thursday, bringing more than 60 local nonprofits looking help volunteers find their place.
The event will be 4-6 p.m. Thursday, May 11, at River City Community Center, 2842 Old U.S. 231 in Lafayette.
For more information, including a list of the nonprofit organizations that will be there, here’s a link: www.lafayettevolunteerexpo.org/
TOUR GREATER LAFAYETTE THIS WEEK … AND BEYOND
Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette is marking National Travel and Tourism Week with a week of food tastings and giveaways, starting Monday.
The idea is to highlight pieces of a local tourism industry that drives $446 million in spending and $253 million in economic impact to Tippecanoe County, Jo Wade, president and CEO of Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette.
The Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette office, 301 Frontage Road, will be open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. through Friday with entries for a “Staycation” contest, including $400 in gift cards to restaurants, festivals and other attractions. Entries are free.
For a schedule for other daily giveaways, here’s a link to tourism week events at Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette.
A TRIBUTE TO A ‘PRESERVATION ANGEL’
It was a nice, quiet moment Saturday afternoon in Centennial Park as neighbors, family and Mayor Tony Roswarski gathered at Fifth and Brown streets to dedicate a bench in honor of Phyllis Hunt, longtime president of the Historic Centennial Neighborhood Association, died in September 2022. She and her husband, Michael, played key roles in rallying neighbors to become investors in renovation and redevelopment projects in Centennial, pulling in support from the city to help to transform a neighborhood just north of downtown Lafayette. The bench remembers Phyllis Hunt as a “Historic Preservation Angel.”
For closer look at how that played out, here’s a Based in Lafayette piece from December 2022, as the Centennial Neighborhood Investment Group celebrated its contribution to a third redevelopment project in the past two decades. The story, with Phyllis Hunt squarely in the room, is an amazing one: “Centennial neighborhood’s big bet on itself: Residents in one of Lafayette’s oldest neighborhoods were so committed to preserving and rebuilding Centennial that they were willing to stake their personal savings on it. The bet keeps paying off.”
OTHER READS …
SAGAMORE FOR KATY BUNDER: Congratulations to Katy Bunder, recently retired CEO of Food Finders Food Bank, who was given the Sagamore of the Wabash Saturday night during the nonprofit’s annual Blue Jean Ball fundraiser. WLFI reporter Pari Apostolakos had this report on one of the highest honors the governor can give to an Indiana resident.
MCCORMICK IN THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR: Jennifer McCormick, a former Republican state superintendent for public instruction, formally announced that she’d run for governor in 2024 as a Democrat. Here are a few more looks at how things line up for McCormick, who is the only Democrat in the race, so far. (The Republican primary field includes Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, U.S. Sen. Mike Braun and Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden. Libertarian Donald Rainwater announced he’d run again in 2024, too.)
Adam Wren, in his
Substack, wrote about lingering resentment from Indiana Republicans about McCormick’s run and eventual term as state school superintendent, as well as the work she’ll need to do to get Democrats on board what looks, by all accounts, to be an uphill battle: “7 quick thoughts about Jennifer McCormick's campaign launch.”Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Casey Smith was on hand for McCormick’s announcement last week in New Castle: “McCormick officially enters governor’s race.”
ICYMI …
SUPREME COURT JOINS CONVERSATION ON TEISING CASE: Jennifer Teising, former Wabash Township trustee, isn’t off the hook, yet. Late last week, the Indiana Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments about whether it should transfer her overturned, 2022 theft conviction to the high court. In play: What is the definition of “residency” when it comes to a township trustee – an issue that led to her charges and her initial conviction in a Tippecanoe County courtroom. The details are in this story, from Sunday: “Indiana Supreme Court agrees to review ex-Wabash Township trustee’s overturned conviction.”
BISHOP SPEAKS OUT ABOUT A ‘THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS’ AGE OF GUN VIOLENCE: Lafayette Bishop Timothy Doherty talked about a column coming later this week in the diocese’s Catholic Moment newspaper, dealing with his plea for policy changes to curb gun violence. This piece appeared Saturday, hours before the latest mass shooting that left eight victims dead at an Allen, Texas, outlet mall: “Bishop: ‘Thoughts and prayers … not sufficient’ in gun deaths.”
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With respect to the "work she’ll need to do to get Democrats on board", are there any other potential Democratic candidates who would have a hope in hell of winning? I'm a Democrat who has no idea of who the leading lights are in the state party, which has been godawful for years. Yeah, easy to say that such is the tough reality of life in a gerrymandered red state, but McCormick's been laying groundwork for this run on social media for years now, and that's the kind of work I did not see from, say, Thomas McDermott in his 2022 Senate run (hell, I just had to Google the Democratic nominee in that race, he was that forgettable).
There are some individual elected Democrats who work to maximize their voice in a crappy situation (e.g. Campbell, Klinker), but Indiana's Democratic Party leadership seems to have no strategy at all.
Also, re guns - yet another Republican-enabled mass murder.