Saturday, January 30, 2010

Open Letter to Bill Benner

In last week's Indianapolis Business Journal, Bill Benner (who's director of communications for the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Bureau) admitted, "I'm more interested in soccer all of a sudden." As part of his "conversion", he mentions that "soccer is the world's game" and Indianapolis is among the 18 finalist cities as part of the bid to bring the World Cup to the U.S. in 2018 or 2022.

But then, he goes on to say that Indy is a "mostly homogenous community", and he'd like "a little spice to add to our mostly salt-and-pepper population". Yikes!

OK, Benner: consider this an invitation. Come to the next meeting of the Nationalities Council of Indiana (7 p.m. Monday 8 February in the Max Kade Room of the Athenaeum, 401 East Michigan Street, Indianapolis). All of our meetings always are open to everyone! You don't need to wait for the next International Festival (it's 18-21 November). Just look out over the faces of the NCI membership. Check out the ethnic diversity already present in the Hoosier state's capital city and reflect on your somewhat naive assertion! One would think an officer of the ICVA would know better!

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