University of Nebraska Kearney

Previous Speakers & Events

Author Joseph Marshall III

Joseph Marshall III, an award-winning author of The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History (Viking Penguin 2004), will be featured at several events in Kearney on Wednesday, November 8 and Thursday, November 9 2006. 

Wednesday, November 9:

   “Storytelling: For Young and Old”
   2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
   KearneyPublic Library 
 
   Booksigning
   4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
   Folletts Bookstore  
 
   “Storytelling” 
   7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
   Ponderosa Room E, Nebraskan Student Union

   Mr. Marshall will also meet with CAC members after the last event.

Joseph Marshall III has authored ten books, including the highly acclaimed The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History  (Viking Penguin 2004), and The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living  (Viking Compass 2001), and had screenplays selected by the Sundance Institute. In addition, he is an actor, appearing in The Real West, Return to Lonesome Dove  and in Steven Spielberg’s mini-series Into the West, where he also served as Native American Technical Advisor.  He has also served as a teacher at the high school and college levels, an educational and health programs administrator for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, a craftsman of primitive Lakota bows and arrows, an historian, and a founder Sinte Gleska University. 

 His official website ishttp://www.thunderdreamers.com.

Debating the USA Patriot Act

Amy Miller,  Legal Director of the Nebraska ACLU and Michael Heavican, US Attorney General for Nebraska will debate the USA Patriot Act Tuesday, April 25, 2006 at 7 p.m. in Copeland Hall room 142.

Amy Miller will be joining students affiliated with the Community for Active Citizenship (CAC) afterward for conversation over pancakes. When the debate ends, we will reconvene at Perkins and spend some time visiting with Amy about active citizenship from her perspective. Given the range of issues and controversies in which the American Civil Liberties Union engages, this promises to be fascinating.

U.S. Relations with Cuba

As part of this event, Patrick Leet from Witness for Peace spoke about U.S. relations with Cuba and his life of active citizenship. Mr. Leet has lived in Cuba and reported on (i.e., "witnessed") the impact that the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba exerts on the Cuban people.

Mr. Leet joined the CAC Fellows for dinner on February 23, 2006 and gave a public talk afterwards.

Witness for Peace (WFP) is a politically independent, nationwide grassroots organization of people committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. WFP's mission is to support peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices which contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information, visit Witness for Peace

Fellows of the Community for Active Citizenship (CAC) visited with Dr. Becky Breed, Principal of Bryan Community, Friday, April 22, 2005 in Lincoln.

Bryan Community is an alternative high school in the Lincoln Public Schools system. Its mission is "To empower a community of students to develop socially, personally, and academically, in order to reach their highest potential."

Following the site visit to Bryan Community, fellows had lunch, then proceeded to the UNL Campus for a private meeting with James B. (J.B.) Milliken, President of the University of Nebraska system, an active citizen in his own right.

For more information about this event, please contact Dr. Diane Duffin (duffind@unk.edu or 308-865-8758).

Click this link for more information on Bryan Community

Click this link for more information on President Milliken

On October 8, 2004, Karen Borchert, co-director of Campus Kitchens Project (CKP) spoke on the UNK campus. CKP is a national college-based non-profit program, now in its third year of operations. Karen joined CKP's parent organization, DC Central Kitchen, in June of 2000. At DC Central Kitchen, Karen worked for one year in program development and fundraising, before moving to Saint Louis in the fall of 2001 to work with the pilot program of The Campus Kitchens Project, on the campus of Saint Louis University.

Karen graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 2000. Along with Jessica Jackson, Karen co-founded Homerun, a service organization still active at WFU, after they studied abroad together in Venice, Italy. Through her experience with Homerun, as well as a service trip to Calcutta, India, Karen became interested in a leadership role in the non-profit field, which led her to her work with DC Central Kitchen. Karen lives in Washington, DC and is originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, where her family still resides.

Click the link for a description of the Campus Kitchens Project, and visit the CKP's own website.

On November 16, 2004, the Community for Active Citizenship hosted Annie Mumgaard of Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Nebraska Educational Telecommunications and producer of the film, "Canteen Spirit". The CAC dinner with UNK Fellows was followed by a public screening and discussion of the film with several of the original North Platte Canteen Volunteers.

The hour-long documentary "The Canteen Spirit" chronicles the story of the World War II North Platte Canteen, which made history when residents of 125 communities from across the state greeted millions of soldiers, over a nearly five-year period, as their trains made a ten-minute stop at the North Platte depot. Canteen workers provided sandwiches, cakes, cookies, hard-boiled eggs, doughnuts, beverages, cigarettes, magazines and more, never once running out of provisions in its years of operation. Over 850 applauded the documentary's premiere in North Platte. Annie produced, wrote and directed this film. She is also a Feature Producer for NETVs award-winning news program "Statewide".

As the former Series Producer for "Next Exit" - an NETV magazine show that dealt with our Nebraska identity - who we are, where we came from and where we are going - Annie was intimately involved with the entire show as she worked with the "Next Exit"advisors, fashioned story ideas, managed the production staff and, when time allowed, produced a segment or two herself!

Prior to "Next Exit", Annie was the Co-Producer of "Monkey Trial" a ninety-minute documentary film for the acclaimed American Experience history series. This film tells the story of the Scopes evolution trial of 1925. On this program she combined forces with award winning producer Christine Lesiak to create a visually striking story on one of the greatest trials of the century. She collaborated on the script, conducted visual research and produced the "historical" filming sections of the documentary. The film won a 2003 Peabody Award.

She brings a wealth of experience to public television from her years of production in Washington, D.C. There she honed her visual storytelling skills working with clients such as the American National Red Cross. Her short form works have won numerous awards including several Cine Golden Eagles, The New York Festivals Bronze Medal and Worldfest Houston Silver Award. She is experienced in working with crews numbering from 2 to 15 and has produced and directed in film, video and live studio formats. Her specialty lies in finding the kernel of the story and shining it through an otherwise mundane assignment.

Before coming to NET Annie worked for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Public Relations Office. There, among other works, she created this Big 12 University's nationally released commercials.

In 1997 Annie received a Masters of Art Education from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has taken this special mix of education and production to the halls of the YWCA in Lincoln where she worked with "high risk" youth. Together they created a variety of visual works dealing with self-esteem, violence and the reality of growing up in poverty.

Annie is a University of Nebraska-Lincoln alum. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree.

Click this link to learn more about The Canteen Spirit,

On March 7, 2005, Cecilia Zarate-Laun, Director of the Colombia Support Network,visited the UNK campus to meet with the CAC Fellows and to discuss U.S. foreign policy toward Colombia.

Cecilia Zarate-Laun co-founded the Colombia Support Network in 1988 to address U.S. foreign policy toward the war in Colombia and to help foster a national solidarity movement in the U.S. with the Colombian people. She has been active with CSN since its inception and has been the program director since 1997.

Zarate-Laun was a delegate for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom International Conference in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in 1992, where she served as chair of the election committee and was a drafter of the Treaty of the Americas. She also is a member of the School of the Americas (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) advisory group, a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers, and was a member of the Advisory Council for Latin America for the American Friends Service Committee. She continues to educate the North American people about the impact of the U.S. role in Colombia.

Film Synopsis
With most of the US military aid under the so-called "Plan Colombia" delivered, Pres. Pastrana unilaterally withdraws from the peace process engaged with the FARC guerilla (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and steps up violence in this 50 year-quasi-civil war. But what is left of the initial anti-narcotics purpose of the US "Plan Colombia"? After 20 years of drug-wars in the Andes resulting in a two fold increase of cocaine import in the US in the last ten years alone, what is to be expected from a plan focusing primarily on spraying coca-fields in rebel-held parts of the country when coca is grown all over Colombia ? Is the US Government even concerned still with fighting drugs when the post 9-11 rhetoric made it easy for the State Dep. to now single out the leftist FARC as the enemy # 1 in Colombia on the ground that they use what might be viewed as "terrorist tactics"?

Many interviews including Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, Colombian Presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt (now a hostage of the FARC), US MCs Paul Wellstone and John Conyers, US Gov. officials, a WWF scientist, many different Colombians from all walks of life, including guerilla-leaders, will shed light on the complex issues of drug-trafficking and civil struggle in Colombia. The doc. also looks at the impact and result of the current chemical-spraying campaign carried out by US Defense-contractor Dyncorps, it will probe the US plan in search for alternate motives to a drug-war that the US Gov. has seemed so keen on losing over the past 30 years.

For more information, visit the web site of Peacenowar.net, then click on "Colombia".