67 results for tag: equality
Balancing freedom and equality in a vibrant democracy
by Schuyler Foerster
Sky is currently serving as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.
We live in a world ridden by conflict—conflicts of ideas. Rarely are these ideas about how, together, we might improve the quality of our lives. Instead, they are all too often about how some of us can improve our lives at the expense of others, usually because we want to blame those “others” for whatever we think is absent in our own lives.
“We the People,” was not about “some” of us. (Actually, it was, but we have fought several battles and one Civil War to remedy that ...
Freedom to marry vs. freedom of religion
by Ken Burrows
In the 7/11/15 edition of the Colorado Springs Gazette, the chair of the El Paso County Commission, Amy Lathen, argued that the legalization of gay marriage represents an assault on religious freedom, going so far as to speculate whether a Christian pastor who refuses to perform a gay marriage based on his church’s stand against it will be hauled off to jail, or if religious leaders will be silenced by government for preaching in favor of traditional marriage.
This paranoiac mood has been joined in by other critics of the recent Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage, such as GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee ...
Hard Work and Affecting Change: A Springs Thing
By Anya Arndt
As many of you may know, I am leaving Citizens Project after 15 amazing and rewarding months on staff. At the end of this month, I will be embarking on a journey to spend a year (and maybe more) working in Beirut, Lebanon. It has long been a goal of mine to spend time living and working in the Middle East to expand my own knowledge appreciation of different cultures and ways of life in the world. I am excited for this adventure, but sad to leave my current position; but before I go, I’d like to share with you a little bit about my time here at CP.
When I first came to Citizens Project as an intern in the summer of 2012, I ...
Becoming Whole
By Sarah Musick
I had a lovely childhood. I sincerely did. My parents were hardworking, god-fearing, loving people with big imaginations. They taught my siblings and I that “If you can dream it, you can find a way to make it happen.” They took the twenty acres my grandfather gave them and built a stunning log cabin. It took them five years to complete. They cut 115 straight, tall, poplar trees to build our home.
In hindsight, they wanted their children to be like those poplar trees. Straight. And tall.
I aspired to follow in the footsteps of my father and my father’s father and become a Southern Baptist preacher. I couldn’t because I ...
Citizens Project Mid-Year Update
Earlier this year we asked you, our loyal friends and supporters, to give us feedback about our work and impact. Thanks to the participation of 100 Citizens Project supporters, we learned a lot about our organization, including our strengths and our challenges. One of the opportunities for growth we identified was communication: we learned that we could be doing a better job of keeping you posted on all our programs and successes. To that end, we happily present this mid-year report of exactly what Citizens Project has been up to:
Collaborating with the Pikes Peak Equality Coalition: On February 14, we worked closely with member organizations of ...
Citizens Project interview with KGNU Radio!
Citizens Project was recently interviewed by Mike Gage for KGNU radio's Dot Org program. Check it out here and thanks to Mike and KGNU!
It’s a Springs Thing.
Citizens Project launched an awareness campaign this week that simultaneously highlights the strides made in the areas of diversity, equality, religious freedom, and civic engagement and invites participation in creating a more inclusive community.
The awareness campaign is designed to be aspirational: shifting the conversation about the Colorado Springs community to highlight its successes rather than call attention to its deficits.
The campaign includes billboards, social media, print, and online ads, and was made possible through the generosity of Lunchbucket Creative, Lamar Outdoor Advertising, the Colorado Springs Independent, and ...
Language Matters
By Kristy Milligan
A few weeks ago, I shared lunch with a close friend, who also happens to be a Citizens Project donor, volunteer, committee member, and former board member.
When it was my turn to give a work update, I droned on for several minutes on about our organizational priorities and calendar for the next few months. My friend paused, considered and asked the most simple, profound question.
“What does all that actually mean?”
Most cultures, ranging from ethnic to geographic to professional specialty, adopt a particular vernacular to describe the world around them. That specialized vernacular appears in the form of acronyms, ...
#IHeartCOS
If you love Colorado Springs (and we know you do) join Citizens Project and the Pikes Peak Equality Coalition to spread the love today in our city:
Follow the action on Twitter and use #IHeartCOS to share your own reasons for loving this city
Change your own profile picture to the image at the right
Take a selfie and share with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers why you ♥ Colorado Springs
Finally check out this Buzzfeed article to see why others love Colorado Springs and maybe get some inspiration yourself!
We believe in the transformative power of language. By changing the conversation about our community, we can change our ...