COLUMBUS, Ind. — Columbus Sunrise Rotary has planned two upcoming Zoom meetings with a focus on Black History Month.
Lt. D.F. Pace of the Philadelphia Police Department will speak virtually at 5:30 p.m. Thursday about how he used what he learned at the Rotary Peace Fellowship, a three-month intense training, to defuse tensions between police and community
In his 15-year career with the Philadelphia Police Department, Pace said he has taken pride in being naturally tolerant and level-headed, qualities that helped him rise through the ranks.
But he acknowledges that he is human. To maintain a level head under pressure, at times he uses several techniques he learned through the Rotary Peace Fellowship program.
In 2010, Pace applied for the intensive three-month professional certificate program in Thailand. The idea had come to then-Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey through a suggestion from the Philadelphia Rotary Club, the 19th-oldest Rotary club in the world. Pace relished the challenge.
“As soon as I saw it, I said, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,’” Pace said in an online story at rotary.org.
Even before events like what happened in Ferguson (Missouri), I saw an unease developing between police and the community. I thought, ‘If we don’t get a handle on this, the lid’s going to come off.”
In other Rotary news, author James Madison, well known to local audiences, who will speak at 7 a.m. Feb. 19 about his new book, “The Klu Klux Klan in the Heartland.”
His book begins with this sentence: “The Ku Klux Klan was a dark as the night and as American as apple pie.” In his presentation, Madison will explain that seemingly contradictory statement.
He will focus on Indiana’s Klan of the 1920s, its goals and methods, its members and opponents, and its place in in larger contexts down to our own time.
To join either or both of these meetings: Join Zoom meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81030966449, meeting ID: 810 3096 6449.
Dial by your location: +1 312 626 6799
Information: Priscilla Scalf at 812-344-6290, or priscilla.scalf@gmail.com
