Reaching Out

Right or Left? Conservative or Liberal? However labeled, one half of this nation disagrees strongly with the other half, and war is now writing our history. On September 29, a forum of eight community leaders will participate in a public dialogue to identify areas of agreement, disagreement, and misunderstanding.

I got an email inviting me to a forum sponsored in our local area. I think this is a wonderful idea. We both have ideas. There are certainly areas where we agree, but mostly we disagree about how to reach the objectives we all want. Perhaps if people within each of these groups really sat down and listened (*when* have I said that before?!) we might find out compromises that both sides can live with--not just because they are the best we can do, but because those compromises are ultimately better than anything any one group could think up alone.

Mediating could be a difficult task but I am excited that there are people out there in the community that are willing to try working with this. They have four liberals and four conservatives on the panel that are speaking. I hope things go well and we find some common ground that can start minimizing the divide in the United States.