Card spotlights need for civility at interfaith dinner

Andrew Card has been deeply influenced by the Old and New testaments, but he pulled out another book during a dinner Tuesday in College Station and said it also is important: the Constitution.

"[The founding fathers] wrote a document that described the role of faith for all of us," said Card, the dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service. "And it was that we can have it, and they can't tell us what kind it should be. The document is pretty remarkable."

Card, who served as former President George W. Bush's chief of staff, was the keynote speaker at the annual dinner for the Institute of Interfaith Dialog, a Houston-based nonprofit founded in 2002 to further communication among faiths through personal interaction.

Card noted that the Constitution began with a two-letter word: We.

"Tolerance and respect for people who hold different views from your own views, that's a sign of civility," Card said. "America is a place for civility. Thank you for helping to make sure it remains a place of civility by allowing for and inviting an interfaith dialogue."

Also speaking at the dinner for a couple of hundred people at the Pebble Creek Country Club was Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin.

He noted Texas A&M's efforts in the area of diversity: The university is home to more than 5,000 international students from 127 countries, has a physical presence in several countries, including a branch campus in Qatar, and has around 5 percent of its students at any given time studying outside the U.S.

"My dream as president is that some day every student -- every student at Texas A&M -- will spend one semester outside the United States," Loftin said. "We're a long ways from that."

The goal of the group is to bring community members together in the spirit of tolerance and understanding, said Osman Ozbulut, a volunteer with the Bryan-College Station chapter of the group. It was started by Turkish-Americans and their friends.

The institute has worked with several local churches to raise money to build a Habitat for Humanity home in Bryan. And Ozbulut noted an "interfaith peace garden" planned for Houston that will feature a church, synagogue and mosque.

"We first try to eliminate the prejudices and misunderstandings and then try to work on the common problems," he said.

They also gave three honors to community members: a media service award to Penny Zent, station manager of KAMU; a peace award to Kip Gilts, senior pastor at A&M United Methodist Church; and a leadership award to Gary Blair, head coach of the A&M women's basketball team.

The keynote speaker was supposed to be former First Lady Barbara Bush, but she wasn't feeling well and instead sent Card. At their ages, driving back and forth with her husband from College Station and Houston is getting tougher, she said in a note expressing regret for not attending.

The Bushes are quick with self-deprecating humor. Barbara Bush noted, "George laughingly says we could hide our own Easter eggs."