about NIOT
Tomorrow (June 28), Twin Citians will gather in downtown Bloomington to celebrate Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal's 20th anniversary. Here's a pre-party look at what the group has accomplished and how it plans to move forward in fostering a safer, more inclusive community.
Come join us from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday for entertainment, ice cream, reflections, and recommitment to NIOTBN's goals.
Maria Nagel
The Pantagraph
In July 1996, more than 400 people gathered at the old courthouse square in downtown Bloomington to march against racism and to support black churches that had been burned in the South.
Inspired by a PBS documentary that explored how Billings, Mont., responded to a series of hate crimes, the Not In Our Town movement formed in Bloomington in 1995, making it the first city in the country to adopt the NIOT program.
But it was the 10-block march to Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, one of Bloomington's predominantly black churches, that helped the organization's anti-racism campaign gain a footing in the Twin Cities.
NIOTBN charter member Mike Matejka leads a news conference announcing the organization's 20th anniversary celebration June 28 on the Old Courthouse square in downtown Bloomington. (WJBC)
March organizers Marc Miller, Charles Halbert and his wife, Willie Holton Halbert, and other NIOT members announced Tuesday that Not In Our Town Bloomington-Normal plans to celebrate its 20th anniversary from 6-9 p.m. June 28 at the downtown square, from where the walkers stepped off in 1996.
A commemorative march is planned.
"We're not going to try and do a long march, but just do something to try and mark the event," said Mike Matejka, a NIOT member and Great Plains Laborers District Council's governmental affairs director. "We'll probably just circle the blocks here (around the square)."
"Come back, those who were there with us 20 years ago," said Barb Adkins, who helped organize the original march when she was serving as Bloomington's community affairs manager. "And those who just moved to this community and those who are here for vacation, come see how a community embraces and respects and celebrates the diversity of its citizens."
The event also plans to focus on youth.
"We want to honor the folks who were part of initiating this, but we want to share continuity, so much of what is going to be on the stage and celebrated that night will be our young people who have been part of Not In Our Schools," said Matejka.
Performances are planned by youth dance groups. McLean County Diversity Project scholars Kristin Koe, 18, and Ethan Clay, 13, both of Bloomington, composed a classical musical piece in connection with a mural other diversity project scholars are painting on a retaining wall across Olive Street from the Bloomington Public Library to honor NIOT.
Since the 1996 march, 10,000 people have signed anti-hate pledge cards in the Twin Cities, said Miller.
"Our purpose is to stand up and say, 'We will not tolerate racism and discrimination in our community,'" said Miller. "If we talk about it, if we make this a public discussion more people are aware and more people won't just sit back and say we can't do anything about it."
"I've been really struck by how many times Not In Our Town has come to speak to issues that we all value right ahead of the curve," said NIOT member and Bloomington Ward 6 Alderman Karen Schmidt.
NIOT sponsored anti-hate initiatives in 2000 to counter East Peorian Matt Hale's white supremacist message, and in 2004 when members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., came to town with anti-gay messages.
When GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump visited Bloomington in March, NIOT held a silent vigil.
"Basically, what we were trying to say is: Let's maintain a civil attitude toward one another," said Matejka. "People can disagree on many different things, but I think one of the gifts of this community, maybe it's our Midwestern values, is mutual respect."
It may be no major motion picture. But to an Illinois State University student team currently working to bring Not in Our Town: Bloomington/Normal’s story to the screen, the project’s significance is “huge.”
ISU senior and mass media major Cory Herman is helming a documentary about NIOTBN’s efforts toward building awareness and helping affect change in the Twin Cities. The yet-untitled project is an end-of-the-year production for his team’s Non-TV Production course, focusing on local non-profit activity.
The team currently is interviewing NIOTBN leaders and volunteers and compiling footage from recent NIOTBN-involved events including the December interfaith vigil in downtown Bloomington, NIOTBN’s participation at the Bloomington Donald Trump visit, last spring’s Breaking Barriers police/community dialogue, and the summer vigil for the Charlestown church shooting victims.
The film – and Herman -- were inspired by a meeting between students and NIOTBN Education Chairman Camille Taylor. As Taylor “passionately” outline the group’s community efforts and Not In Our School’s reach into elementary, junior high, and high school classrooms, Herman and his colleagues quickly realized that the project was “bigger than just ourselves; bigger than a grade,” he related.
“Listening to (NIOTBN’s) vision and its values, it really became a mission to show what Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal has done and the positive impact, the positive message that it stands for,” the Metamora student said. “We all looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, this is huge.’
“We want to make sure our film does justice for the organization – to make sure we’re doing everything we can to honor what they’re doing and the people who give the time to make sure that everybody feels safe, that no one feels afraid of being discriminated against or being persecuted for anything.”
The film is set to premiere in a late April screening for the NIOTBN Steering Committee before being submitted for the group to use in its activities. Herman’s production team also includes students David Hohulin, Kyle Bartolini, Sophia Hart, and Kristen Koukol, under the faculty direction of School of Communications Prof. Brent Simonds.
Herman’s own vision and values were forged in part by his parents – his father was a long-time youth pastor, his mother an active community volunteer. The family traveled extensively from church to church, “and my parents told me always to judge people based on who they are – how they act around you, how they act around adults – and to always have the capacity to forgive and to understand,” Herman said.
The Hermans lived for five years in a community a half-hour outside Charleston, S.C., where, according to the student documentarian, many of the residents “were very sweet and truly were looking for change” but others had clung to a “begrudging mentality” with roots in the Civil War era. Herman enjoyed a diverse circle of friends, but the population was divided somewhat by a largely white prep school and a predominantly black public school as well as lingering social sentiments.
“I didn’t realize until looking back, years later, that, wow, what I believed in – what my dad and my mom stood for -- wasn’t necessarily going along with the popular current,” said Herman, whose family returned to the Peoria area 14 years ago. “We never got harassed for it; nothing bad ever came from it. It’s just sobering, looking back and seeing that mentality.”
Herman is slated for a summer internship with a small production studio in Los Angeles. He hopes ultimately to use film, fictional or documentary, not only to entertain but to push his audience to learn and “question” – to challenge previous social perceptions or recognize societal issues and concerns.
“I want to come back and be able to film in Peoria, in Bloomington-Normal,” Herman maintained, however.
Camille Taylor
WJBC Forum
Tis the “Season4Reason” and “Peace on earth, good will towards men!” Does it seem odd that during a season of peace and hope you can’t turn on the TV without seeing so much hate?
Not In Our Town has a message on electronic billboards that proclaim this to be a “Season4Reason” amidst all of the ignorant and hate-filled messages we are receiving. It stands to reason that we’ve always had people of all faiths living not only in America but around the world. It stands to reason that we have both good people and bad people in every faith, non-believers, race, income, and gender.
Some people take the opportunity to promote their own agenda when people are afraid and try to turn people against one another. It stands to reason that we should get the facts before we jump to conclusions against others. It also stands to reason that everyone should not be lumped into one group and labelled when a small minority of individuals does something bad.
That’s why I’m happy to give you “good news” about some events in our community that reflect a “Season4Reason.” The WJBC Brotherhood Tree is in full speed this week at the National Guard Armory. Volunteers are needed each night this week to wrap, sort, and bag gifts that need to be delivered on the morning of Saturday, the 19th. This effort reaches people who are struggling financially from all faiths, races, and genders. Gifts are particularly needed in the 13-18 age categories, specifically young men 17 to 18. The focus is for them to have a decent Christmas, not to judge who they are or where they came from.
Last week, over twenty students from area schools came together to get the tools and resources they need to develop their Not In Our School Clubs. Their goal is to stop hate, address bullying, and to make their schools more safe and inclusive.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, December 16 at 6 p.m., Not In Our Town is sponsoring an interfaith, community solidarity event on the east side of the Old Courthouse in downtown Bloomington. Co-sponsors are First Christian Church, New Covenant Community, the Presbytery of Great Rivers, and Moses Montefiore Temple in collaboration with the Islamic Center of B/N and Masjid Ibrahim Mosque. By bringing all faiths together, we show that stereotyping groups within our community is not acceptable.
We have the opportunity to make this a “Season4Reason” and spread “Peace on earth, good will toward men!” We just need the collective will to do it! I’m Camille Taylor for the WJBC Forum.
In addition, listen to Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal's Kelley Becker, associate minister at Bloomington First Christian Church, discuss the need for interfaith understanding and cooperation with WGLT-Radio's Charlie Schlenker, at http://wglt.org/post/interfaith-muslim-solidarity-event-set
Darlene Miller
Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal
Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old who shot nine church members in Charleston, South Carolina.
We too have been thinking about the '90’s church burnings as we try to digest this horrible event (this week's Charleston, S.C., church shootings).
My husband Marc and I shared an office space in our home back then: With every report of a church burning over the course of several months, we would comment to each other about how terrible it all was, and then go back to work. Finally it was apparent that we needed to actually do something if our words were to have any substantive meaning.
We set up a meeting at our local library: (Bloomington labor leader and alderman) Mike Matekja showed up with his good news -- the story of Not In Our Town. Churches, the mayor, and countless citizens stepped forward to participate. A team of wonderful people went south to help rebuild a church, including the mayor of Bloomington.
Marc designed an action step --.an act that people of any age could participate in: "Sign a Pledge Card," which served as a tool of self-commitment to fight racism and hate, and to this day is a mainstay in our efforts.
When we started the Not In Our Town In Schools in the mid-2000s, the hope was to reach families who would never on their own have the opportunity to make a statement regarding racism: The local schools were most receptive in letting us have information tables at as many as 30 events a year. We felt this was a way to possibly catch the attention of a youngster headed in the wrong direction. I so strongly feel that children need to be reached early.
So our attention turned to reaching the unreached. The annual rallies, although inspiring, tended to draw the same already committed crowds and reached very few new people. Today, (NIOT:B/N leaders and educators) Camille Taylor and Faye-Freeman Smith are leading the Education component and how fortunate we are for their skilled leadership: They are leading our most important effort in my opinion -- reaching young people.
Beginning this week, Brian, Steve, Nicole, Lindsay, and Susan will be riding the bus with Twin Cities commuters, on behalf of Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal.
Connect Transit: Bloomington-Normal Public Transit System (BNPTS) buses will display five messages aimed at raising awareness of NIOTBN's anti-bigotry/anti-bullying message. Four of the on-board bus ads will feature representatives of local businesses Babbitt's Books, Mitchell Family Chiropractic, That's So Sweet bakery, and North Street Tattoo, each speaking out against racism, hate, bigotry, and prejudice.
The ads, designed in conjunction with NIOT:BN's December relaunch, reflect a similar billboard campaign directed at soliciting NIOT pledges from Twin Cities residents. The McLean County YWCA is cooperating in the campaign.
Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal is making great progress in its fundraising campaign through CrowdRise, aimed at supporting future community education and outreach efforts. Over Christmas, NIOT received a single $500 donation, prompting CrowdRise to donate another $200. As of New Year's Eve, contributions overall had reached $2,200.
There's still a way to go yet, though, and if you wish to contribute to efforts to fight bullying and bigotry and building community understanding. visit crowdrise.com/NotInOurTownBloomingtonNormal https://www.crowdrise.com/NotInOurTownBloomingtonNormal.
Your NIOT:BN Pledge has no connection to any monetary donation, and is strictly a personal commitment to Not In Our Town principles. You can pledge above at Help Fight Hate.
