On Saturday evening (8/27/2011) at 7:00 o'clock the Friends of Linebaugh gather in the upstairs reading room of the library to meet and hear from Dave Isay, author of the bestselling Listening Is an Act of Love. The book encapsulates the nation’s largest-ever oral-history project. Isay also is founder of StoryCorps that is a part of National Public Radio broadcasts. Isay’s book was this year’s One Book Summer Reading Selection for the area.

Isay played some of the humourous and touching real-life people who have visited his story booths that have now been to all 50 states in the past eight years. He told the packed crowd at the Linebaugh Library that people need to communicate and listen to each other. He noted that "we would learn we had much more in common than we have different."

On Sunday (8/28/11), Isay was the speaker at MTSU's Fall Commencement in Murphy Center. During that service, university president, Dr. Sidney McPhee, introduced the True Blue Pledge. 

The death of Tina Stewart last March rocked the campus and community. Dr. McPhee pledged to take positive action toward a greater focus on reason and civility. He formed the President’s Task Force on Non-Violence and Conflict Resolution. The True Blue Pledge is one of the results. It is a statement of resolve for the entire community to commit to reason, calm and civility. 

Click web link for an MTSU video of the "True Blue Pledge":  http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6762895/True%20Blue%20-%201080p%2029.97fps.mp4