Brownwood Dinner Table ?

James Ragland
Dinner Table participants break bread and stereotypes

01:37 PM CST on Saturday, January 29, 2005
By JAMES RAGLAND / The Dallas Morning News
Dear Readers: More than 1,100 people participated in this month's fifth annual Dallas Dinner Table, which was held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The Dinner Tables are designed to bring people from diverse backgrounds together over dinner to discuss ways to bridge racial, ethnic and cultural divides.

for the entire article visit: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/texasliving/columnists/all/stories/013005dnlivragland.8ec9.html

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Locals break bread together

Abilene Dinner Table gives chance for 400 to converse

By Brye Butler and Raquel C. Garza / Reporter-News Staff Writers
January 23, 2005

They started out as strangers Saturday night, but after dinner together and a few hours of conversation, many left their Abilene Dinner Table venues as friends.

''I think y'all are going to be like part of my family,'' said Cindy Boyd, one participant.

The Abilene Dinner Table is a gathering of community members all around town who may not know each other. The idea is to share a meal, discuss issues affecting their lives and grow from the experience.

More than 400 area residents - double the number expected - gathered at church halls, museums, public venues and people's homes for the first Abilene Dinner Table. The concept was spearheaded by the Abilene Reporter-News editorial board.

''We were overwhelmed by the response,'' said Terri Burke, editor of the Abilene Reporter-News.

Adults and children gathered to discuss a variety of issues across the Big Country. Participants were racially diverse as well, she said.

''There's really a great cross-section of people hosting as well as participating,'' Burke said. '' ... It's a little bit of everybody.''

At the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, tables were set up for the adults and for children.

Michelle Coleman, an HSU junior, asked the youth group about prejudice, not only as the word applies to race but to people's feelings for others based on money, their style of dressing and the types of activities people participated in.

''I think all people are equal - poor, rich, black, white,'' said Casper Hove-McGhee, 12.

The group acknowledged that it can be hard to treat people equally, especially when peer pressure is involved.

''We listen more to other people than we listen to ourselves,'' said Michael Chambers, 15.

Madison Moore, 11, didn't like when people were discriminated against for whatever reason.

''They're not opening their mind up to what the world can bring them,'' she said.

Opening first their mouths, then their minds, nearly 20 residents met at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. The group sat at two tables, and each started the evening with introductions and small talk. All had a common goal: to better Abilene through communication.

''If you don't know people, how can you love them?'' said participant Virginia Connally. ''This is an opportunity for us to get to know each other.''

Her table, hosted and facilitated by the Rev. Kelvin Kelley, discussed current events, professions and religion. Conversation was easy, comfortable and abundant - in between bites of food.

Kelley prompted the participants with questions and pictures to stimulate conversation.

Connally, 92, said she wanted to participate to benefit her city.

''I've always said 'yes,''' Connally said. ''Yes opens doors.''

Dinner Table participants were solicited through the Abilene Reporter-News. Table hosts, including members of the Reporter-News editorial board, volunteered. Others were personally asked by Burke, who hosted a table with her husband in their home.

Table hosts met earlier in the week to discuss how to prompt dinner conversation. Diners discussed their expectations of the event and if they were met, Burke said.

At Rob and Linda Carleton's home, the conversation took two different paths - while one table discussed racial issues, the other spent time getting to know one another.

''When we first started to talk about the community, we started to talk about Abilene and how close-knit a community it was,'' said Karen Johnson. ''From there, we started talking about one another.''

Greg Baier, a Wisconsin native, thought this was a great way to get to know his tablemates.

''You don't really establish community by asking 'What's your view?' - that divides people,'' he said. ''I think people would rather talk about one another.''

source: http://www1.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_3491670,00.html