Speaker will encourage grass-roots work, world view Ruth Messinger (submitted photo). Messinger is spending the week as a Woodrow Wilson scholar in De Pere By Michelle Kennedy News-Chronicle Ruth Messinger has a message: Get up and do something. This week the president of the American Jewish World Service is bringing that message to St. Norbert College, where she will spend time in a variety of classes from policy to social work to international government. As a Woodrow Wilson scholar, Messinger was invited to speak for the last Great Decisions speech of the school year. Her topic, "International Humanitarian Crisis," draws from her experience not only in her current position but as a former New York City council member, mayoral candidate and Borough of Manhattan president. The American Jewish World Service is an international agency that provides grants, technical assistance and American volunteers to grass-roots groups doing sustainable development and institution-building in developing world countries. "That is really where the common thread of my experience lies - in the grass-roots organization," Messinger said. "I have worked with local communities, helping them make change on their own and the principle is the same overseas. "Women's groups in Senegal utilize the same organization techniques to eliminate female genital mutilation that groups in New York use to fight poverty in the community." It is, for Messinger, an immersion in a whole new field, but one that she enthusiastically takes on. "Americans seem to be so convinced that they can't make a difference," she said. "The complacency is frustrating. Now, whether it's apathy or cynicism I don't know, maybe a little of both. I think people get sick of seeing the scandal and corruption stories and think that their efforts won't make a difference. I want people to know that that type of thinking is wrong." Messinger said that Americans seem to know very little about the struggle with poverty and disease in the rest of the world. Further, Americans are unsure of what their obligation is to suffering populations in other countries. Some polls that Messinger cites in her speeches suggest that Americans think we spend much more on nonmilitary foreign aid than we actually do. These same Americans would also be happy to spend more if they thought the aid was going to the people who need it most, she said. "At a political level, the thing that is limiting us the most in helping other countries is the fact that there is no strong lobby for nonmilitary aid," Messinger said. "In fact, we gave a higher proportion of the budget to nonmilitary aid during the Cold War in order to 'win friends and influence countries.'" Now, Messinger said, the current presidential administration has said that it will limit aid to countries within our strategic interest - and hunger problems in Africa are not within our strategic interest as it is currently defined. The role of a Woodrow Wilson scholar program is to bring a variety of individuals with interesting and diverse backgrounds into liberal arts colleges. "Many times schools get interesting speakers, but they really don't get to spend time with the speaker," she said. "This program rewards quality liberal arts schools with that opportunity. Students get a different type of exchange when the speaker spends time with them." On the St. Norbert campus, it is obvious that community service is very important, she said. "Trying to convince people that they are movers in this world is the biggest challenge," Messinger said. "It doesn't matter what your work is for, just that you do it and you're committed to it." FYI Ruth Messinger is scheduled to speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Fort Howard Theater of Bemis International Center on the St. Norbert College campus, 100 Grant St., De Pere. The talk concludes this year's Great Decisions speaker series. Cost is $5 and teacher inservice credits are available.