JJ comes to our home town
by Paul Katzeff, Co-founder and CEO, Thanksgiving Coffee Co.
You throw a party and wonder…will anyone come? Well Town Hall was packed and no one was disappointed . Ft. Bragg’s Town Hall is on Main Street in the center of town. It has been there for 100 years and the site of citizens fighting government and government consultants for decades. When the hippies came in the early 70’s the town devided along class lines. Old timers vs. Urban youth , loggers vs. Environmentalists, and no growthers vs. the real estate pro growth lobby. City Hall has not been a place of peace in all the years that I have been here. But on March 7th it was very different. People came to hear first hand about peace in a far away place . They came to learn how JJ Keki got Jews, Muslims and Christians together to build a better life in their shared community.
The peace movement activists came, the interfaith people came, and our friends came to the party . We did our “dog and pony show” for about 90 minutes. I sat so I could see the audience of about 85 people (2 % of the local populous). They were mesmerized by the concept which I framed as “The Greatest Coffee Story Ever Told”. I was surprised at a spontaneous applause that happenned when at the evenings close I reminded people that this beautiful story was nothing but a story until the Mirembe Kawomera Cooperative sold enough coffee to become sustainable and that peace and economic justice were intimately related . “We are fund raisers for this revolution of peace and that is a noble cause…to sell coffee so peace can reign” I said. ” Hope breeds determination and we have enabled hope to exist in their community and they are determined because we are on their team and also determined to show that interfaith cooperation coupled with economic development can lead to a better life for all. JJ became living proof of this possibility and the people who came to our party felt it and loved the feeling.