In the first full day of the “Building a New World Conference” being held at Radford University, something occurred to me about the attendees. “These are people,” I thought, “who have chosen the path of least resistance.”

While sitting in the Thursday afternoon session of “9/11 Truth,” I glanced around to realize that the room was probably at no more than 20 percent capacity. That might be a generous estimation. Author Steve Alten commented that “the problem” was not with those of us in the room, but with all of those empty seats.” I realized then that we live in a country that doesn’t like inconvenient truths.

And this conference is apparently for people who don’t mind such truths. Many, in fact, choose making others aware of these truths their life missions.

Whether or not it’s a stick-our-heads-in-the-sand mindset or the fact that this conference was woefully underpublicized, a conference of this magnitude should have 50,000 attendees. It probably has less than 1,000. True, the conference fee is $110, and that’s a bit steep for the average working Joe in tough economic times. But for activists, dreamers, and revolutionaries, few opportunities exist for so many like minds to gather—especially in the New River Valley.

In my conversations with attendees, I spoke with folks from California and Maryland and Florida and New Hampshire. But NRV residents were few and far between. Why? As I said, the conference fee of $110 was surely prohibitive to many—and that fee did not include room or board, which are extra. And the conference received scant attention in the area’s mainstream media—or even inexplicably from Radford University itself. The Roanoke Times offered this jewel of a column, which really misses the whole point of the conference. But this point remains: A lot of locals either didn’t know the conference was going on or didn’t have an idea about what it truly was about.

But I think many of us living our comfortable American lives don’t want to attend a conference such as this because it forces us to face reality—a reality more significant than the American Idol winner, the NBA playoffs, or catching up on the latest gossip we obtain through our Facebook friends. In this reality we must look at people face-to-face and hear their stories. For instance, Kingsport, Tenn., native and current Asheville, N.C. resident Jason Hurd (pictured in the middle of photo above) of Iraq Veterans Against the War told of pressing the trigger on his weapon almost to the point of firing upon an approaching car before an Iraqi man convinced the driver to stop and out stepped an old and respected woman in the community. She was clearly just an old and probably confused woman. She certainly wasn’t a threat. And James Morriss (pictured far right in photo above) told of being ordered to shoot a boy—a young boy—who was carrying a rifle but walking away from Morriss and his fellow soldiers. Morriss refused, but a soldier nearby followed through on the order.

In a session on “Taking Back the Media,” we had to face the reality that we are force-fed what the corporate media tosses out for us, and we rarely hear such stories such as those offered by Morriss and Hurd. We also rarely hear about the mountain of evidence that suggests 9/11 was an inside job. Whether it was or it wasn’t, we should be allowed to hear the debate in our various media outlets instead of having the conference ridiculed by the likes of corporate-owned The Roanoke Times. (At least it’s owned by Landmark Communications Inc. today, which is looking to unload the Times and other holdings. Hey Rupert Murdoch, too bad you missed out on the Newsday buyout. Wanna buy a paper in Southwest Virginia instead?)

And finally, in the evening we had to face the reality of our treatment of animals in the documentary Earthlings. Whether we use animals for food or clothing, pets, entertainment, or medical research, being forced to actually see our treatment of animals was more than some could bear.

But if you want to be someone who is aware, someone who wants to see the world for what it is, the conference continues at RU through Sunday. Registration takes place at the Bonnie Hurlburt Student Center. I would encourage you to take a break from your normal reality of John Mayer dating Jennifer Aniston or maybe Grand Theft Auto IV, and look at the reality of building a new world.

Tim W. Jackson has opinions. Just ask him.