That seemed to be the general message given by keynote speaker Guadalupe Lara at this year's Families Alive Conference that took place on campus March 22. Lara is a highly educated and experienced social worker. In our program we believe no matter what people do, there's validity in their actions. Lara spoke for an hour and communicated her message of individual responsibility in conflict situations through funny anecdotes from her own experiences. Another message she emphasized was that people need to be aware of and learn to accept the idea of change.
Dead people are the only things that stand still.
Things aren't the same as they were yesterday and they're constantly changing. Lara was referring not only to conflict between two people or even two institutions, she was referring to the conflict occurring nationwide with the rapid change in demographics. Cultural differences are a reason behind a lot of the conflict that Lara sees. These cultural differences lead to diverse communication styles that lead to confusion which is a component of conflict. Everything she said made perfect sense, but it's a different thing to do it.