Author Urges Return To Community Spirit

In this age of raging diversity, in which everyone - from those belonging to the smallest ethnic groups to those involved in the ongoing taxpayers’ revolt - spends much time and energy outlining individual concerns, it’s difficult to get anyone interested in the old-fashioned notion of community spirit.

Daniel Kemmis tries. The mayor of Missoula and sometimes author, who will give a reading Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore (see below), is in many ways a throwback. You can tell that by the statements he makes.

“It’s possible for people to be disagreeing with each other but have the sense that, even while they’re disagreeing, they’re working toward a common ground,” Kemmis told Spokesman-Review reporter Eric Sorenson last October. The very notion that there is a cultural “common ground” in America, Kemmis said, “seems to be a sense that we’ve lost.”

In his book “The Good City and the Good Life: Renewing the Sense of Community,” Kemmis argues the case for a “communitarian” spirit that has room both for individual rights and the overall common good.

But just as it has taken two centuries for America to get mired in its current mess, it will take time, he says, to get out.

“The chief civic virtue,” Kemmis said, “is patience.”

A black voice

The concerns of Daniel Kemmis aside, it’s clear that many segments of American society are understandably interested in seeking out connections that define them both as individuals and as a specific group within the larger culture.

The Black Education Program at Eastern Washington University is founding a newsletter that, according to an EWU news release, will “focus on the social, political, economic, spiritual, nutritional and historical experiences of people of African descent.”

“We are seeking essays, poetry, art, book reviews, film reviews, short stories and op-ed pieces from Eastern’s faculty, staff and students - and also from members of the community,” says program director Danielle Tillman.

First deadline: Nov. 20. Send all submissions to: EWU Black Education Program, MS-164 Eastern Washington University, Attn: Gianna, 526 Fifth St., Cheney, WA 99004-2428.

For further information, call 359-2205.

Time to ‘Howl’

A pre-Halloween bash at Moscow’s BookPeople, located at 512 S. Main, Moscow, Idaho, will feature an evening of jazz and beat poetry.

The public is invited to attend dressed as “your favorite beat poet,” with prizes going to the best costume. Peter Alilunas will read from Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem “Howl.”

The party begins at 7 p.m. For further information, call (208) 882-7957.

Not a Cary Grant

If you’re in or near Metaline Falls on Wednesday, Nov. 13, and you’re interested in obtaining a grant, you might want to attend a special grant-writing workshop led by Bitsy Bidwell of the Washington State Arts Commission.

The daylong workshop (9 a.m.-3 p.m.), which will be held at The Cutter Theatre in Metaline Falls, will feature Bidwell informing participants how to develop the required planning material for all types of grant projects.

The price, which includes lunch, is $25. Send the fee to: Cutter Theatre, Box 133, Metaline Falls, WA 99153. For further information, call 446-4108.

Brock to the basics

Spokane poet Randall Brock called to remind anyone interested that he has a post office box to which orders for his latest chapbook, “Concrete,” can be sent. The address is as follows: Randall Brock, P.O. Box 1673, Spokane, WA 99210. The chapbook is priced at $5.

A quotable quote

“Whether or not the Star Trek future can include a stable wormhole, and whether or not the Enterprise crew would travel back in time to 19th-century San Francisco, the real stakes in the cosmic poker game derive from one of the questions that led us to discuss curved spacetime in the first place: Is warp drive possible? For, barring the unlikely possibility that our galaxy is riddled with stable wormholes, it is abundantly clear from our earlier discussions that without something like it, most of the galaxy will always remain beyond our reach. It is finally time to address this vexing question. The answer is a resounding ‘Maybe!”’

-From “The Physics of Star Trek” (HarperPerennial, 188 pages, $10 paperback) by Lawrence M. Kraus.

The reader board

Steven Ross Evans, author of “Voice of the Old Wolf,” will do a slide-show presentation from his book at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Missoula mayor Daniel Kemmis, author of “The Good City and the Good Life,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

, DataTimes