In the two years Business Publications Corp. has presented the Central Iowa Activist Awards in sponsorship with Drake University, it’s been under the Cityview banner. With our company’s sale of Cityview last spring, we retained the Activist Project and will again present the awards this fall, this time under the flags of the Des Moines Business Record and Drake.

As business leaders, we’re stakeholders. Our future livelihoods depend on Iowa becoming a more inclusive state whose people respect differences in others; a state that values its young people and invests in giving all of them, from the most economically vulnerable to the most academically challenged, a fair start in life; a state that doesn’t just talk about equality but epitomizes it; a state that respects its environment as a bird does its nest. The workers we hope to attract in the future will demand it.

That makes it appropriate for the Business Record to continue to honor people like Ako Abdul-Samad and Jonathan Narcisse, leaders in the African-American community; neighborhood activist Bob Mickle, who watchdogs local government and solidifies international friendships half a world away; and peace activist Brian Terrell and Drake law professor Sally Frank, who were embroiled in a First Amendment dispute in 2004 when a federal grand jury probed civil disobedience training at Drake University and a peace demonstration at Camp Dodge.

We’re mixing up the categories some to keep them current with events. This year, we will honor candidates in the areas of human rights, neighborhood and community, education and youth activism, environmentalism, and feminism. Feminism is a new category, added to recognize fearless, trailblazing women who have helped other women bridge the societal chasms that have left them underrepresented in public office and corporate boardrooms and paid less than some of their male counterparts. We’ll also pick a student activist, as we did last year when we honored Basil Mahayni, an Iowa State University senior who led students and community members to a non-violent response to a spate of anti-Arab remarks and incidents on campus in the years following 9/11. This award reflects the philosophy of both Drake and the Business Record that students are stakeholders in creating the type of society they want to live in and their efforts should not be overlooked.

Nomination forms will appear in the Business Record next month and also on our Web site, www.businessrecord.com. But we hope you’ll start thinking now of people who have devoted their energy to resolving inequities and ensuring equal justice for all. We recognize that the work of activists is almost always slow, frequently unpopular, sometimes dangerous, and they seldom receive a thank-you. We’re looking for nominees who have taken personal and professional risks, whose lives would have been less stressful if they’d remained oblivious to bias and discrimination, sat back and let things be. In some cases, when talk wasn’t enough, individual philanthropy has marshaled the resources necessary to fight a problem. In all cases, we’re looking for people who have been selfless, who demonstrate daily that individual commitment is a vehicle for change.

We hope you’ll look at the categories multidimensionally. In the neighborhood and community category, for example, the winner might be a neighborhood activist concerned with issues close to home, or someone whose activism helped make Iowa friendlier to minorities and immigrants, as our first award winner in this category did. Before there was a Commission on Latino Affairs, Latinos had Ila Plasencia, regarded by many as the most prominent Latina political activist in Iowa. In Mickle, we found both a neighborhood activist and an international ambassador.

Watch the Business Record for more details. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to call me and chat about the Central Iowa Activist Awards at 288-3338, Ext. 233, or e-mail me at bethdalbey@bpcdm.com