Joe Gerstandt | keynote speaker, freedom fighter, freak-flag flier

The Detroit News’ Laura Berman writes:

"He is an eminent scholar of Victorian literature, recruited in a national search and selected as one of three finalists for an elite academic position — dean of arts and sciences — at Oakland University. Then he withdrew his name. One factor, university officials say, was the state’s grim economic outlook. But a harsh social climate didn’t help, especially a recent state appeals court decision ruling that state universities could no longer offer domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian staff members. …Voters who in 2004 defined marriage and its social benefits specifically to include only those formally and legally joined in heterosexual unions, are getting what they perhaps wished for: a specialized kink in the brain drain that is affecting ability to keep and retain faculty members."

"Michigan’s effectively becoming a laboratory for legal ways to drive out some of its smartest citizens — and to keep out others….Jo Reger, an associate professor of sociology at Oakland University, said that after Michigan voters passed measures defining marriage, and another banning affirmative action, "Michigan just doesn’t seem like a welcoming place anymore"."

The full story is here.

Florida goes on to say… 

I’m not saying that lack of openness is the root-cause of Michigan’s problems, and neither is Laura Berman. The state is suffering the consequences of decades of absolutely mind-boggling mis-management by the Big Three. But the two are related. The state’s economic decline generates the fear and anxiety that produces this kind of backlash. That intolerance then chases away the top talent at the state’s fantastic higher-education institutions which are the key to its revival, while chillng the market for new talent. As Henry Baskin, a Oakland University trustee originally appointed by Michigan’s former Republican Governor,  John Engler told the paper: "Anytime you eliminate parts of society, you hurt yourself."

 So how many times has this happened to Omaha?  How many bright, talented people have decided not to stay here or not to move here because of the climate in Omaha and Nebraska regarding diversity?  How many business have decided not to locate here or expand here because of the climate in Omaha and Nebraska regarding diversity?  How many?  I guess we will never know how many, but I think that we all know that it happens…and every time that it happens, we are less than what we could be as a community.  We are less diverse, less talented and less creative…everytime it happens we are less authentic as a community.

 

If we are serious about OUR community and its future, we should be very serious about these questions.  Who are we eliminating?  Who are we welcoming to and how do we send these messages.  If Omaha is to be the "shining city on the hill", which I believe it truly can be, we must be a place that is attractive, welcoming and engaging to people of all identities and perspectives.