After two nights of West Wing episodes, I thought I would pick something else tonight. (Our dear friend, John C Webb, Top Comments stalwart and rock, has a prior engagement this evening. Very sorry to inflict BeninSC on you once again.)
A recent newspaper article was about a group in Clemson, South Carolina, that seeks to bridge the political divide that we see all around us in today’s world. Called the Clemson Area Better Angels, they conduct meetings between ‘reds’ and ‘blues’ to try to relate as human beings rather than as enemies. (They have an easily found FB group, no need for me to link to it.)
More below.
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Written by Greenville News columnist, Ron Barnett, it began thus:
During the exact moment when worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh were being gunned down, an evenly split group of ideologically polar opposites was sitting down in Clemson to begin trying to defuse the rancor that has come to define political discourse in 21st century America.
I have seen groups like this before. Generally, I applaud efforts to lower tensions and to strip away obstacles to communication.
There was a group in Boston that tried, after the John Salvi reproductive health clinic killings in Brookline MA in 1994, to find ‘common ground’ on - of all things - the abortion issue. Their endeavor is described here. (That used to be a Boston Globe link. Every time I revisit an old bookmarked version of it, it’s defunct, and I have to find a new link. My hope is that the link above will last the duration of this diary.)
They met under the auspices of a group called the Public Conversations Project. Here is the description from the archived copy of the above-linked article.
In the months following the shootings, the Public Conversations Project, a Boston-based national group that designs and conducts dialogues about divisive public issues, consulted many community leaders about the value of top-level talks about abortion.
Over the years I have spent a fair amount of time at the PCP website. Now, it no longer seems to load, having morphed, of late, into a group called Essential Partners. And the page linked confirms its history as the PCP.
If you have interest in cross-aisle outreach, as it were, I commend those resources to you.
For myself, I have little hope for real progress from groups of that sort, because, with gerrymandering, voter suppression and other insidious forms of electoral cheating, the one side will NEVER compromise, and will gravitate, instead (as it has already been doing for too many years), to ever more extreme degrees of purity, selfishness and intransigence. I know it’s hard to imagine that they could move that much further, but, and I hate to think this, much less say it. But, fascism lives. It could not be talked away in the 1940’s. I don’t think it can be talked away today. I hope with all my heart that it can be VOTED into oblivion.
Thanks for reading! On to tonight’s comments!
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From dabug, indyada AND Kluger2:
This (in the comment by BOHICA) should be our new motto! From oldhippiedude’s Tweets of the Week diary. (Ed. note: I have seen comments submitted by two readers, but this is the first I ever recall submitted by three! WOW!)
Highlighted by indyada:
Is this excellent tweet shared by oldhippiedude about … Sarah Palin, and her evolved gibberish.
Highlighted by high uintas:
Is this comment by WorkinJoe with an interesting tweet included in the body of the comment. (Tweet from God! 😉 )
Highlighted by Hinoema01:
Is this comment by TexasTom, with a clever idea for sending legislation on to the Senate from our Democratic House of Representatives. I hope we do this!
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, November 24th, 2018, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for November 25th, 2018. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!
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