Last night I was honored to attend the NUVO Cultural Vision Awards 2007 as a guest of the award-winning cultural visionary John Clark. For those of you that aren't familiar with Indiana's capitol city, NUVO is "Indy's alternative voice," and in the opinion of many locals, the premiere news source with a conscience, a brutish habit of speaking truth to power, and a nasty penchant for empowering the community. Simply put, NUVO is a dynamic newspaper for a dynamic city. Unfortunately, according to NUVO:

People in Indianapolis used to actually brag about how nothing new ever got started here. The idea was that this town waited until ideas were tested elsewhere and then, ahem, we took the best ones for our own.

So much for early adopters.

NUVO started the Cultural Vision Awards because we knew that not only was this bad strategy for the city?s future, it wasn?t true. As our writers traversed Indianapolis, we were constantly finding people and organizations that weren?t waiting to hear about what was happening somewhere else ? they were innovating on their own.

The only problem was that not enough people were finding out about the good works happening here.

Anyone who works on international relations/foreign policy/national security issues in Indianapolis knows there is one man at the center of this universe of often disparate stars and constellations -- John Clark. We at Citizens for Global Solutions have been lucky to work closely with John over the past few years, and join NUVO in applauding his innovative and entrepreneurial efforts to inspire others to change the world from right here in Indianapolis. Here's how Charlie Wiles, and equally inspiring local veteran and peace educator/activist, explains John Clark for NUVO:

Located next door to a National Guard recruiting station on Indiana Avenue just south of Michigan Street are the annex office spaces of the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research. Stop in on any given day and you will hear a diverse mix of tunes wafting from the office of Senior Fellow John Clark. Gypsy music from the Balkans, Portuguese fado, bebop from Kansas City, Cuban salsa, a Mozart sonata or a current remix of a classic Beatles tune all figure into Clark?s eclectic taste for this universal language, an artform that moves human emotion by transcending time and political, religious, ethnic and national boundaries.

The power of transcendence is something Clark emulates with his superior intellect. Whether he is facilitating a public conversation with visiting journalists from Turkey, mayors from Israel and Palestine, or a group of high school students who have just viewed a current film about Iraq, Clark is a maestro in the Socratic method of engaging people in a meaningful exchange of ideas. Through intensive research Clark has also helped to inform a regional conversation about the impact of Hispanic immigration on Central Indiana.

John Clark is a major proponent of the notion of ?glocalization,? or the power of trans-local partnerships, which he describes as a new model of public diplomacy and foreign aid. Central Indiana is rich with organizations and individuals that aspire to change the world through international outreach. International Center of Indianapolis, Franciscan Center for Global Studies , Christel DeHaan, Ambassadors for Children, IU-Kenya Partnership, Rotary, Kiwanis International (to name only a few) ? each contributes to a symphony of actors striving for the kind of sustained social change that occurs through an intimate, local-to-local exchange of people, talent, resources and goodwill.

John gets "it". He recognizes our interconnected world and the power we all have as citizens seeking global solutions from our own backyards. Always humble and self-deprecating, John constantly reminds those around him that we all have a role to play and that none of us can change the world alone. He's absolutely right. But without John, and people like him in communities across America and around the world, we'd all be lost in our own private universes. Thanks for the reminder, John.

Make sure to check out John's newest innovation, Provocate.org !

Rich Stazinski