By Shane Goodman shane@dmcityview.com

How to be more tolerant

Friends of Iowa Civil Rights Inc. is a nonprofit group that recognizes people and organizations that dedicate themselves to making Iowa more diverse and tolerant. They are having a conference in Ames on Oct. 16-17 with exhibitors, workshops and lectures on the subject.

Reporter Bethany Kohoutek brought up the idea of publishing information about each of the five award winners as our cover story. I thought it sounded worth covering, but, to be honest, I expected to read about a bunch of tree-huggers telling each other how great they are. I was wrong. This story shares information about each of the winners and what they are doing to make Iowa a more progressive place.

There's Sam Carbajal, a Hispanic immigrant who works as an outreach worker for at-youth risk in Marshalltown.

There's Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, an organization that is providing healthcare services for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals.

There's the Des Moines Choral Society, a volunteer group that works with elementary students in local public schools to get kids interested in the power of song.

There's the Iowa EXPORT Center of Excellence on Health Disparities, an organization that is making the public aware of discrepancies in healthcare among Iowa's minority populations.

And there's Judy Haley Giesen, a woman who has worked diligently to make Dubuque more welcoming to its GLBT community.

We realize that not all our readers will agree with the accomplishments of these winners, but you must respect their efforts to make Iowa and its citizens more tolerant of differing opinions, ideas and lifestyles. We are glad to bring you their stories.

Get your scissors

We know that you like to save money. We do, too. So inside this issue of Cityview, you will find our first attempt at a coupon book. We hope that you find the deals useful and beneficial.

And your stapler, too

We ditched the staples. Yes, we liked the finished look of Cityview with the stitch and trim, but we changed our production schedule and had to drop this feature as a result. Our special pages like the bridal guide in this issue can now be pull-out features, as we originally intended them to be. We also understand that our friends at The Des Moines Register now have a bindery and may be finishing their products like ours very soon. And despite their efforts, we don't want anyone to confuse our publications with theirs.

Thanks for reading.

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