(by Tim Sullivan)
"Wow," "powerful," "emotional" and "the most organized yet." These are the comments I heard Sunday afternoon as people described their experience at our 2026 US Servas National Conference. In fairness to past conferences, we have never had the opportunity to hear from a group of local citizens about their experience with the violence and injustice of the ICE surge in Minneapolis. One attendee went so far as to say, "Listening to the stories of what happened here in Minneapolis, and how the citizens responded gives me hope for America".
A key part of any US Servas conference is the opportunity to visit with old friends and make some new ones. That's what we began on Friday night with our dinner cruise on the Mississippi River. It was great fun.
Saturday morning started off with the amazing and heart-wrenching stories from Minneapolis. A panel of eight people shared their experiences of the ICE surge and the Minneapolis response. They made it clear it was not just Minneapolis but St. Paul, and that people showed up from small communities across Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other states. The people on this panel first shared some of the horrific violence they witnessed, including targeting schools to reach children's parents, and of course the killing by ICE of two local US citizens. Many of the panelists broke down in tears as they described had happened to their neighbors and friends. These were horrific and emotional stories. The response to ICE's tactics in many ways was even more powerful and emotional. There were stories of both organized and spontaneous activities. The level of communication it took to bring people together with such a powerful outcome was phenomenal. The non-profits did most of the communication and recording of data, but they were quick to point out that none of it could have happened without all the local people who showed up to help. Some were trained observers, many simply helped their neighbors with getting to work or school, buying groceries or simply with their presence. For my part, the emotions and the words that came to mind about the community’s action included: amazement, creativity, bravery, organization/communication/connectedness, risk, compassion, neighborliness, fierceness, hope and love. This presentation was one of the most powerful and emotional I have ever witnessed. Sadly, because this administration continues to persecute and prosecute activists like these, we could not record this session to share with you.
Later that morning we followed up with a training session on how we might want to respond in our communities under similar circumstances. We hope to bring some of this training online to our Servas members in the near future.
That morning we also had a great presentation from Ann Frisch about the status of nuclear weapons in the world and how we might respond. She gave us a great resource in two books from Ward Hayes Wilson: Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons and It Is Possible: A Future Without Nuclear Weapons. Here's link to a talk by Wilson where he describes the current reality of nuclear weapons and the arguments for eliminating them: https://youtu.be/73w5D0rHgm0?si=ju25L7UH5BN3mTkl
That afternoon we had several breakout sessions including the new US Servas Emergency Servas, SYLE update and brainstorming, and discussions around member experiences. We closed the afternoon with a great presentation by Servas International Peace Secretary Francisco Salomon Luna. He spoke about the many SI peace activities going on around the world. He also shared that there will be a regional North America Servas conference in Guatemala in February 2027 that US Servas is co-sponsoring with Canada, Mexico and Guatemala. Watch for more details on this conference.
Saturday night we had a terrific interactive improv activity with Danger Boat. It is impossible to describe, but it included lots of getting up moving around and interacting with 50 different people in the room. It was a great learning experience and lots of fun, too.
On Sunday morning we heard from SI Servas President Radha Radhakrishna. He shared what is happening around the world with Servas and encouraged us in a variety of ways to become more engaged with Servas.
We also heard an interesting presentation by a representative from Braver Angels. He shared some history and how Braver Angels are trying to improve communication between the left and the right of the political spectrum. Some people in the audience are already participating with Braver Angels. Here's a link to their organization’s website: https://braverangels.org/
We closed with a powerful session by Lilly Lombard and the peace team presenting two Peace Awards of $5,000 for each winner. Two local US Servas members nominated our winners and shared their stories of why they nominated Unidos-MN and The Immigrant Defense Network. Once again, tears flowed. Please read Lilly’s excellent article in last month's Open Doors about this year's Peace Award presentation.
It's clear to me that Servas’s peace building mission is as important as it's ever been. The level of violence, wars, arms sales and countries expanding their war making potential seems to be at its highest point since WWII. I recognize that probably almost all of our US Servas members are involved in some kind of peace building outside of US Servas. The question for me and other members who I spoke with at the conference is what more can US Servas do in the peace building arena. There is so much work to be done around the world and especially in our own country. In an all-volunteer US Servas every new idea and the energy to make that idea a reality comes from individual US Servas members like you. So, bring your ideas and your energy and let's build some peace!
