today, i was lucky enough to attend a talk on religious tolerance at st. olaf college.  this was given by congressman keith ellison the representative for minneapolis and much of surrounding mn.  afterward, i even got to briefly meet the congressman and say thank you for the excellent opportunity to  bring this discussion to st. olaf.  the congressman struck me as an incredibly sincere and straightforward man – for a politician (i kid i kid).  generally speaking, as a political science major i’ve become jaded to certain aspects of politics as i’ve grown to understand them.  despite this, the congressman’s message today was one that i believe people of all political affiliations and other identifiers can endorse.  religious tolerance is one of the aspects that our country was founded on; yet,  as the congressman went on to say, our country is also dichotomous because we also have a long history of persecution for those who are different than us.  congressman ellison encouraged us to follow the former of the two traditions and to understand that an open forum for religion and other differences is essential to the dialog we have as a country and the only way we can continue to come together as a nation.

while this is a bit deeper than the usual wedding blog post i hope that everyone enjoys the pictures and is looking forward to this summer as blog posts begin to come much more rapidly – wedding season is just around the corner!!

thanks for looking,

evan

[nggallery id=39]