It was an odd sort of evening. Uncomfortable at times, but also productive.

On Tuesday, June 16, Leadership Ellsworth County sponsored a zoom meeting to talk about systemic racism, a term we’ve heard a lot lately, given the protests that have rolled across the county following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Forty-three registered for the on-line forum; 35 participated, according to Leadership Ellsworth County’s Stacie Schmidt.

“I was very pleased with the participation and level of engagement on a tough topic,” Schmidt wrote in an e-mail after the event. “Participants were asked to create their own ‘norms’ or expectations for behavior and hold each other accountable to comply, and I was impressed with the respectful dialogue and behavior at what can be a heated and controversial topic.”

A few of the points:

• It’s important for people to know and understand not everyone has the same life experience.

• The first step is to care.

• We need to listen and understand right now.

• It’s sometimes difficult to take a stand because it can mean the loss of friendship or business.

• We need to teach our kids to be kind to everyone without regard to color.

Perhaps one of the more practical observations came from Johnnie Goddard, former warden at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility and long-time employee of the Kansas Department of Corrections, who talked about a flawed system that favors those with money.

“The people who have the advantage are the people with resources,” Goddard said.

The implication was clear. Minorities are often the ones with fewer resources to beat the system.

Schmidt said she organized the on-line discussion after participating in a similar forum sponsored by the Wichita-based Kansas Leadership Center.

She hopes to continue to discuss systemic racism and other topics in what she is calling “Courageous Conversations.” Feedback from the June 16 event indicated a large percentage of those who participated would be willing to Zoom in again.

“I am inspired by the potential for what can happen if we open the dialogue on this topic and more,” Schmidt said.

“I want the community to learn to talk about controversial issues, engage in civil discourse and learn to hear other interpretations, manage their own behavior and learn to understand their internal dialogue.

“I know that this on-line forum became a topic of discussion in households, workplaces, civic groups and even in churches. That’s a success.

“I also received several e-mails and texts the rest of the week as people considered our final question, ‘What can you do and what will you do?’ and began to consider their action plans. That’s also a success.

“With small steps together we can make big leaps forward and that creates systemic change.”

Other thoughts — Several former Ellsworth County residents who live elsewhere, but continue to care for what happens in their rural hometowns took the time to participate in the June 16 forum.

Derek Smith, who was raised at Wilson, was one of those former residents. You will find his thoughts on a column elsewhere on this page. Derek talks a lot about history and working to understand how we got to where we are.

Or — as a friend says — it’s not the responsibility of African-Americans to teach us about their history. It’s ours.

In that spirit, the newspaper hopes to start a book club that showcases stories about black history. There are many; they just never made it into our history classes, at least when we were in school. Maybe that has changed. We hope so.

Education and knowledge are powerful weapons against racism and other ills.

Please let us know what you think. Is a book club something you would be interested in doing? Do you have any book suggestions?

Our e-mail address is indy@eaglecom.net. My cell phone number is (785) 472-7339.

We’ll be waiting to hear from you.