Resources
3 Videos For Your Meeting
For your Newsletter
The topic of the 21-minute video for your ZOOM RC meeting:
The Keokuk Peace Letters, 1931 - 2031: Nationalism, Then & Now
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The Notion of the Keokuk Peace Letters, 1931-2031 is more relevant than ever: Rotary, with its 1.2 million members worldwide, has been advocating for peace, democracy, and environmental and climate protection since 1905. An extraordinary example of this involvement is associated with the name Jewett Fulton. Fulton, an American Rotarian, traveled to Europe in 1931 to participate in the International Rotary Convention held in Vienna. He was deeply disturbed by the political, economic, and societal tensions he sensed on the European continent. Once back in his hometown of Keokuk, Iowa on the Mississippi River, he and his Rotary Club initiated a global action in an effort to counter the approaching calamity. The Keokuk Club sent out a letter to each of the then-existing 504 Rotary Clubs outside the United States offering to smoke the peace pipe symbolically with them. Today our world is once again in turmoil. Nationalism, discrimination, authoritarian forms of government, and an emphasis on thinking in terms of spheres of influence are again on the increase. The sense of democratic renewal that prevailed at the end of the Cold War has vanished. This is why Jewett Fulton’s peace pipe notion is now more relevant than ever, and we Rotarians hope to activate it anew. The timeless and fascinating responses received by the Keokuk Rotary Club from all over the world at the beginning of the 1930s and the further development of this global action until the present day are documented at: www.KeokukPeaceLetters.com.
The May 23-27, 2022 Rotary conference, "Democracy under Fire", in Northfield, MN, was based on these fundamental values, which is why the title story of the richly illustrated online conference magazine — p’review — features some of the Keokuk Peace Letters, 331 pages. As Conn points out, “the rediscovery of these almost forgotten letters provided the initial spark for our idea of thinking in common about Rotary’s mission. Our concern is to bring into sharper focus the areas of peace and the prevention of conflicts.” www.PeaceConference.us
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Joachim "Yogi" Reppmann, PhD, was born in Flensburg, Germany, in 1957. Historian: German 1848 movement’s democratic impact in the US. Professor of German at St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges. Since 1995 RC Northfield, MN: www.PeaceConference.us www.KeokukPeaceLetters.com — PS: In 1976 and fueled by his fascination with America from reading wild west fiction novels he traveled to the United States as a hitchhiker to learn everything he could about the USA. www.moin-moin.us
Tony Conn, +1 (515) 418-5865 conn.tony.2013@gmail.com
Yogi Reppmann, +1 (507) 581-6734 yogireppmann@gmail.com
Anthony Conn is a former president of Conn Communications, Inc., a wireless communications agent in Iowa and Missouri. He served 10 years in the United States Army as an officer in the Corps of Engineers, stationed at posts in South Korea, Germany, and United States. Anthony is a graduate of St. Ambrose University, B.S. Mathematics. He had served on many civic organizations in his former community Keokuk, Iowa, USA. He has been working for over 15 years in chemical sales throughout the Midwest, lately for Mapei S.p.A.,out of Minnesota — an Italian company that manufactures chemical products for the building industry.
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Tallinn, Estonia Tragedy, 1932 - Tony Conn Research
Tony Conn Tallinn Slides - Powerpoint
Please, invite Tony or Yogi to present a PowerPoint to your club / organization
or use 21 minute video: ABOVE - Red Button
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All information in the document can be copied and pasted into an email/newsletter, but the portrait photos need to be individually copied and pasted one at a time due to computer limitations.