Page 4 January 25, 2018 TORRANCE TRIBUNE
TerriAnn in Torrance
The League of Women Voters Torrance Area Hosted a Civility Workshop In Torrance
By TerriAnn Ferren
Last week, in honor of the Dr. Martin
Luther King holiday, the League of Women
Voters (LWV) of Torrance Area presented an
Education Program on Reviving Civility at
the Sam Levy Adult Center. Admission was
free, children were welcomed and the event
was presented by Secretary of the League
of Women Voters Gloria Gutierrez; former
Torrance City Clerk Sue Herbers; and Jackie
LaBouff, who is in charge of education for
the League of Women Voters.
Greeting attendees at the door were students
Rushni Wickramasinge, age 17, and Hanna
Garcia, age 16 from the Torrance High Tartar
Ladies. “We are checking in people and we
have numbers on each nametag to make sure
that people get to meet new friends and kind
of mingle with each other,” said Hanna. I
made out my nametag and noticed I was assigned
to group seven. The room was set up
for several small groups of six people each.
Students Jee Eun Yoon, age 16 and Katie
Mendoza, age 15 were busy accepting donations
of hygiene items, which were collected
from attendees and will be donated to the
1736 Family Crisis Center. Katie Mendoza
told me, “We joined Tartar Ladies to serve
the school and serve our community. When
I first signed up, I thought this is cool --
supporting women voters and stuff like that.
And I wanted to come and check it out and
see if it is something I want to participate
in in the future.” Jee Eun Yoon explained,
“Tartar Ladies is a service club that had been
at our school for more than 50 years. There
are Tartar Knights and Tartar Ladies. Tartar
Knights are for the guys and it is a service
club -- not just about getting hours. We
serve our community and help our school,
our teachers, aids, and ASB as well. So we
are kind of important. It is great ‘cuz it is
a serious club. We are about meeting new
people and starting to grow into our community
and also sharing and talking to other
people about their experiences…”
Torrance Councilman Mike Griffiths, one
of the attendees, told me, “I think if what
I understood this event is about is to hear
and discuss some of the philosophies of Dr.
Martin Luther King. As Sue Herbers mentioned
when she brought this item forward
under orals at our council meeting, it is a
discussion on how to make our world a kinder
and gentler world. We certainly need that.”
As the event was about to begin, I noticed
my group was missing people. I was the only
one in my group. Then Gloria Gutierrez invited
some of the Torrance High Tartar Ladies
to join the groups that needed participants.
Luckily, I was privileged in having four of
the young ladies join me. My four groupmates
were Katie Mendoza plus Amanda,
Emily and Jee Eun Yoon.
Then League of Women Voters President
Athena Paquette Cormier welcomed everyone
and reminded the group that the Torrance
Area branch began in 1962 as an offspring
of the PV League and just celebrated 55
years of existence. “This is something we
have been wanting to do for awhile – some
kind of activity, program on civil discourse
-- so I am really excited that first of all Sue
Herbers really dove into it and then Gloria
joined her to create a program for this,” she
said. “We are a non-partisan but political
organization, which means we don’t support
our post candidates or parties as a league.
Individually we all have our opinions, we all
have maybe the party that we like… but here
in the league, we believe in the non-partisan
approach.” For more information, check out
the League of Women Voters Torrance Area
website at: http://www.lwvtorrancearea.org.
Herbers and LaBouff then described how
the event would progress for the day. Gutierrez
explained how we would engage in our
individual groups. At this point, I felt very
fortunate to have such an opportunity for
conversation and idea exchange with these
very involved teenagers. They were bright,
forthcoming and eloquent, and we had a
rapport right from the start.
During the afternoon, discussions ensued
about how to engage and talk about
controversial topics with others civilly.
Not always easy, but Dr. Martin Luther
King’s words were the example put on the
screen, “The hope of a secure and livable
world lies with disciplined nonconformists
who are dedicated to justice, peace and
brotherhood,” he had said. The leaders for
the day encouraged everyone to go out
and engage people in conversation remembering
that civility, open-mindedness and
kindness rule.
The children who came with adults to the
event played outside under the watchful eye
of the Torrance High Tartar Ladies, while
other members of the Tartar Ladies busily
bagged over 400 items for 60 hygiene kits
in the back of the room.
After the two-hour program, I asked Mayor
Patrick Furey what he thought of the event
and he said, “It was really good -- lots of
discussion about the way to react to people
and I think if we put those methods into
actual operation, I think it’ll work. ‘Cuz
there are certain things that I picked up.
I always felt, ‘How do I respond to this?
Getting those cues is really helpful, I think,
to diffuse a situations as well as to perhaps
let someone know that’s not what you want
to speak about.”
All in all it was a very interesting afternoon,
and sharing with four teenagers was a
blessing. One particular quote I love by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. came to mind as I
left the event: “The function of education is
to teach one to think intensively and to think
critically. Intelligence plus character – that
is the goal of true education.” •
Rushni Wickramasinge, age 17; and Hanna Garcia, age 16. Jee Eun Yoon, age 16; and Katie Mendoza, age 15.
(L-R) Torrance High Tartar Ladies: Katie Mendoza, age 15; Amanda, Emily and Jee Eun Yoon, age 16. Resident of the League of Women Voters Torrance Area Athena Paquette Cormier; and Secretary of the League of Women Voters
Torrance Area Gloria Gutierrez.
League of Women Voters Torrance Area in charge of education, Jackie LaBouff; and former Torrance City Clerk Sue Herbers. Secretary of LWV Gloria Gutierrez, and former City Clerk Sue Herbers.