Minnesota’s Third District US Rep. Erik Paulsen and The Advocates for Human Rights will engage Liberians in Minnesota in a community dialogue meeting today on ways of addressing the issues of peace, unity and reconcilaition in the community the Peoples news has learned.

According a letter sent to the People-to-People Media Network, the meeting which takes place today, Wednesday August at the Brooklyn United Methodist Church (7200 Brooklyn Boulevard, Brooklyn Center, MN 55429) will bring together several Liberian residents in the twin cities as well as parties to the OLM Board and other conflicts.

It is not clear whats the format of the meeting will be but several Liberians our reporters spoke with expressed the hope that this initiative will be the beginning of a process that will provide the opportunity for concrete ideas and suggestions that will lead to peace and unity in the community.

The letter from the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights pointed out that process has the potential to not only bring parties to various protracted community conflict to a common table but also to hold the parties and the community accountable for shared progress.

The organizers said the planned dialogue is structured in two parts. The first meeting would allow members of the community to identify conflicts and challenges facing the community and where they would make commitment to work together to address the critical issues impeding community progress, added the letter under the signature of Robin Phillips, Executive Director of The Advocates for Human Rights.

The letter emphasized that the second meeting would provide opportunities where members and leaders of the community would report back to the Congressman on their progress and outcomes for shared growth and success of the Liberian community in Minnesota.

Liberians in Minnesota have had their share of prolonged divisive conflicts, often related to power struggles and personal vendettas associated with the running of community groups, especially ethnic-based associations and the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota, OLM.

A number of stakeholders has expressed optimism that this new effort could represent the best opportunity to create a template, to begin the resolution of old conflicts in new effective ways, although there is no guarantee that two meetings would lead to the fading away of long-running conflicts and tensions.

The meeting is scheduled to commence at 4:30 pm and the organizers are asking that all interested parties be on time