The 2024 election season has begun. Over the next eleven months we will hear incendiary rhetoric about the future of America. People will take sides. The nation will be on the line. How will we get through it? Will we get through it? Our ability to listen to each other and hold fast to the Constitution that binds us together will determine our fate.
In 2007, Anne Udall, then executive director of the Lee Institute, penned for us a column called 'Public Conversation.' During a time when the Iraq war was raging, and the news was filled with arguments about race relations, immigration, and gay marriage, Udall reminded us that "only through conversations with people who hold different beliefs than we do, will we figure out what is the common ground for our communities and country." Democracy is hard, and a privilege to engage in upon which our lives and liberties depend.
In this issue, you’ll also read a 2011 interview with Carol Quillen, then the in-coming president of Davidson College, on the importance of the liberal arts to our civic life. You'll also find a profile of the singer Maria Howell by former editor-in-chief John Schacht, a story about family currents by Sue Friday, and an artist gallery showcasing the imagination of Mel Chin. In addition, you’ll see links to four of our PDF magazines from previous years that include lead columns from David Darnell, Patricia Zoder, Mary Tribble, and Phil Kline.
Out of many one, Mark Peres
Charlotte Viewpoint Founder The Charlotte Center Founder & Executive Director |
Why, in a world where we have access to more information, data, and opinions than ever before, is it so hard to talk with people who hold different opinions than ours? An explosion of information stimuli, and, we don’t talk with each other. An irony, is it not?
Since 2001, I have been the Executive Director of the Lee Institute here in Charlotte. Our focus at Lee is on building community to better serve the public good through collaborative efforts—whether through facilitating community coalitions, working on strategic planning in various areas, or supporting the growth of civic leaders through the Charlotte Region Chapter of the American Leadership Forum. In short, I have the privilege of being in many rooms where passionate people, committed to our community, come together to hold difficult conversations on a particular concern. It is not easy in those meetings for folks to talk to each other. People come with opinions set, judgments already made, frequently focused on ‘winning folks over.’ In community settings, the burden of responsibility for having tough conversations falls on the leaders, the facilitator, and the meeting participants. With good ground rules in place, solid information trusted by the group, and a strong leader, groups can reach consensus on tough questions. I have seen it happen over and over again.
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From 2011:
A Case for Liberal Education |
In May of [2011], Davidson College elected its 18th and current president, Carol Quillen. The trustees elected the college’s first female president and the first president since 1957 not to have graduated from Davidson.
President Quillen joins Davidson from Rice University, where she had a distinguished career as a professor of history. She developed global partnerships and new academic programs at Rice as Vice President for International and Interdisciplinary Initiatives. She also developed a profound commitment to liberal education. |
| From 2015:
Maria Howell Sings Classics Her Way |
The big band era stretched from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s, and is largely recognized as the golden age for song interpreters. Operating under the Tin Pan Alley publishing model, the goal was to have as many singers as possible record and perform a song. It’s the model that singers like Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra cut their teeth on, and one that required them to perform singular versions of familiar songs in order to stand out from the masses. |
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Leno’s got Pamela Anderson on tonight and is making jokes about her implants—the ones she had out. She’s looking slutty but in a good way and playing along with him. I stroke my upper lip to stimulate the hairs there to grow into whiskers and hope she drops something and has to bend over to pick it up. I can tell ol’ Jay also wants to check her out to see just how much she went down. Her T-shirt is cut low enough to show she’s got plenty left.
Tits. I think about them all the time. Mostly I think about touching one. In biology class last year, Anna brushed one of hers against my arm, and then acted like nothing happened. I expect a lot of the girls will grow big ones over the summer. I’m looking forward to ninth grade. |
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Mel Chin is known for the broad range of approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and works that conjoin cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas.
For instance, from 1995 to 1997, Chin organized ninety people to produce In the Name of the Place, a conceptual public art project conducted on prime-time television. Chin also promotes works of art that have the ultimate effect of benefiting science, as in Revival Field, 1990-ongoing, and also in the current Operation Paydirt project, an attempt to make New Orleans, and cities across the U.S., lead-safe cities (see www.fundred.org).
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About Charlotte Viewpoint |
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Charlotte Viewpoint is a magazine about the city and culture of the Charlotte region that ran from 2003-2016. Charlotte Viewpoint published civic and cultural commentary and programmed events about Charlotte for engaged citizens to nurture creative capital, elevate civic discourse and promote intellectual and artistic excellence in the Charlotte region. |
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| Charlotte Viewpoint has been archived by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room for its historical significance. |
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