Fifth Annual Dialog and Friendship Dinner Los Angeles
Los Angeles hosted the Fifth Annual Dialog and Friendship Dinner at LA Radisson Westside Hotel on the 30th of October. The reception started at 06:30 pm and dinner at 07:00 pm. 275 guests attended the night which featured President Bill Clinton’s taped message, Santa Monica College President Dr Chui L. Tsang as the keynote speaker, LA County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca, Turkish Consul General Hakan Tekin, Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian, Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles Human Rights Commission Allen Freehling and LA Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Gary Toebben. LA County Sheriff Leroy Baca himself presented the recognition of the Sheriff’s Office to the Pacifica Institute. Recognitions of the City of Los Angeles State of California signed by the Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City of Los Angeles signed by the Councilmember of the 11th District Bill Rosendahl, California State Senator of the 39th District Christine Kehoe, City of Beverly Hills signed by Mayor Barry Brucker, Vice Mayor Frank Fenton, Councilmember Linda Briskman, Councilmember Jimmy Delshad and Councilmember Nancy Krasne, and finally County of Los Angeles signed by the Board of Supervisors were all read before the dinner started.
Taped message of Bill Clinton stressed the need for better understanding and lines of communication be open at all levels, and added that he admired the work done by the transnational social movement inspired by the Turkish intellectual and thinker Fethullah Gulen.
Santa Monica College President Dr Chui L. Tsang mentioned the initiative Santa Monica started some years ago to enable dialog and understanding in the college and with the exchange students the university contacted. Dr Tsang also mentioned the trip he took to Turkey and congratulated the grass-root effort of the Gulen Movement to build schools and bring people of different backgrounds for the good of common humanity.
After the president’s speech, an animation video of the Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival was presented to the guests and the video clip of the interfaith song by the Turkish folk singer Mahsun Kirmizgul was shown. The art of water marbling followed which was presented by the ebru artist Mine Calik. She performed two water marbling shows which were projected on the large screen. The paintings on water and their prints on paper drew loud applause from the guests.
LA County Sheriff Leroy Baca thanked the Pacifica Institute for organizing such a dinner and emphasized the need for more understanding and assumed that Moses, Jesus and Mohammad being good towards one another. Consul General Hakan Tekin commended the Pacifica Institute for their events and activities that he had watched during the video presentation and stressed that hate is not the solution of the problems. Chief Bernard Melekian pointed out that we need to work for the betterment of the common human values. Executive Director Allen Freehling told the guests that city of Los Angeles is the most diverse in the world and added that we should work hard to keep it that way. Gary Toebben the CEO of the LA Area Chamber of Commerce thanked the Pacifica Institute for including himself to the event and the vitality of the business in Los Angeles is greatly owed to the city’s rich diversity. Academicians from UCLA, Caltech, USC, Santa Monica College, UCI, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Long Beach, Consul Generals of Germany, New Zealand, Greece, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, Azerbeijan were present at the dinner along with the distinguished guests.