Our College and Our Town

2015 by Ed Chasteen

A dear friend who loved our town and our college and made marvelous speeches lauding both, would, in irreverent offhand asides to a chosen few, refer to us as “a little pissant college in a little podunk town”.With both coasts dismissing us as “flyover country,” such a self assessment kept us doubly humble while also poking fun at those who dismissively overlooked us. When I came to see that similar descriptions applied equally to every place on the planet when that place was thought of all by itself, I understood such comments as a call to arms, compelling me to want to become a World Class Person, able to go anyplace at anytime and talk to anyone about anything and feel safe.

Think globally. Act locally. Our little town is called Liberty. I can ride my bicycle 125 miles on a good day. So I drew a 125-mile circle with our town at its center and dubbed this place Greater Liberty. My students and I at William Jewell College started HateBusters to face down hate and teach people how to like people. My church, Second Baptist, in Liberty appointed me Ambassador to Other Communities of Faith. I take our folks to visit other faith communities. I invite other faith communities to visit us. Our sole (soul) agenda: to begin becoming friends. Now to all Muslims in Greater Liberty we plan to go, making friends on our minds.

As I’m writing these words, I’m sitting at table #1, just inside the door at Ginger Sue’s, the place I call my office, where over breakfast I do my best thinking and by both design and happenstance meet folks who make my day. I’ve finished my breakfast and been here about an hour when in walk Mike Oliver, son Matt and friend Grant. “I wondered who we’d see here today that we knew,” Mike says when they all stop by my table.

Mike is a graduate of my college. Now a lawyer with the Justice Department. Matt is a current student at WJC. Grant Brallier goes to Drury University in Springfield. “My grand daughter, Laura Haskell, goes to Drury.” I say. “She gets back tonight from England where she’s been for this semester.” “I know Laura,” says Grant. “We have the same major.”

I got here at 6:30. It’s 8:15 now. At 9 o’clock I’ve invited any of the 12 who went we me to Al-Inshirah two weeks ago to come again to the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City, where we have a 10 o’clock appointment. To Al-Inshirah we took a college van. Today we go in my red PT Cruiser, license # H8BSTR. The HateBuster Mobile holds only four. I’ve promised to go once a week to visit the Muslim community in Greater Liberty. The place and the time will vary and not known far in advance, making it hard for others to plan to come. I will send email invitations. Some may drive themselves. So long as we have no more than 12, my self-imposed maximum.

Les Weirich and his wife, Carol, moved to Liberty a couple of years ago to be near their two daughters. Les and Carol quickly became always present and involved members at Second Baptist. Les joins me at nine and we drive to the ISGKC.

Jim Gordon, Pastor of Pineridge Presbyterian Church, went with us to Al-Inshirah. He drove this morning from home. He’s waiting in the parking lot at ISGKC when we arrive. As we greet each other, our hostess for the hour we will be here also comes to welcome us. Rubou Sous shows us inside. We remove our shoes and walk into the prayer room. Ruby, as she asks us to call her, pulls three chairs together and seats herself in a fourth chair facing us.

Ruby tells us about the construction we see and shows a picture of the completed building. She tells us about the adjacent school, one of the two Islamic schools in Kansas City. Ruby was born in Saudi Arabia, has lived in the U.S. since she was 17, and loves Kansas City. She lives near the ISGKC and often welcomes visitors.

Each time I ask a Muslim community to welcome us, I specify to them and to those I ask to come with me that we will visit for just one hour. I do this so that our host will not be burdened and those who come can plan their day. Dozens of Muslim communities live and work in Greater Liberty. With most of these good places still to visit, this is my plan.