–submitted by Valerie Renk
Renee Moe challenged Rotarians June 10 to improve race relations by being more willing to talk about the issue. Moe is President and CEO of United Way of Dane County, where she has held a variety of positions. She shared some of her personal challenges growing up bi-racial in rural Wisconsin. She said, “At 12, I remember praying to be killed, but as a teenager, thankfully, I knew it could be different from my early years abroad. Please know people are hurting because of how society comes together.”
Moe indicated several studies have shown workplace diversity contribute to productivity, resource generation and customer insights.
“It’s about relationships,” Moe said. “And proximity is what builds relationships.”
Moe indicated it may be helpful to think of Black Lives Matter as “Black Lives Matter, Too” using the analogy that everyone at your dinner table gets a serving of meatloaf. You don’t get a serving, yet you deserve one. But you still don’t get one.
Recalling a past conversation with a Rotarian, Moe remembers telling him about racial equity, “You don’t have to understand everything, just believe and it will all fall into place.”
Moe was our 2013-2014 Rotary Club President and has both and JBA and an MBA from UW-Madison. She was introduced by Teresa Holmes, Club Racial Equity and Inclusion Committee Chair.
For additional information on this topic, you can visit the following links:
- 75 things white people can do for racial justicefrom Corinne Shutack, posted on Medium
- Anti-racism resources for white people, compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein
- https://www.facebook.com/153418591515382/posts/1372603702930192/?vh=e&d=n
If you missed our meeting this week, you can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/0zCOTRubYmw.
This week, UW-Madison Professor Jo Handelsman talked virtually with the Downtown Rotary about a project she began while working at Yale University in 2012 called Tiny Earth. This important project was developed to increase the number of students pursuing STEM degrees as well as address the growing antibiotic crisis. Researchers estimate that unless we do something soon, by 2050 the leading cause of death will be related to bacteria-related illness.
On May 20, 2020, VA Secretary Mary Kolar gave an insightful presentation regarding the significance of Memorial Day. She first offered information regarding the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs and the services and benefits provided for service members in Wisconsin, where 345,000 veterans reside. The WDVA works hard each day to ensure that veterans have access to all benefits available to them. The programs the WDVA oversees extend from administering the Wisconsin Veterans Museum (a Smithsonian affiliate that welcomes 90,000+ visitors each year), where it continuously educates the public with unique stories and histories of Wisconsin’s veterans, to veterans’ cemeteries where our veterans receive honorable burials, to providing access to mental health and housing assistance.
In Rotary’s first live Zoom meeting, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, against a backdrop of red tulips and the capitol dome, provided a comprehensive 30-minute overview of Madison’s responses to COVID-19.
Sometimes it’s better to begin at the end, in this case with Professor Christine Whelan’s personal May 6, 2020, Pandemic Purpose Statement:
Rotary Club of Madison, Wisconsin 