By John Porcari
As the Sesquicentennial Committee developed this summer’s theme of “Building Community for 150 Years,” we identified one of the seven practices to do so as “Respect Differences & Create Harmony.” This practice is defined as: “We recognize the unique dignity, individuality and equal humanity of all in our community. Through meaningful dialogue and civil discourse, we seek to understand one another and find common points of agreement while also honoring the rights of each person to respectfully disagree.”
I knew that the AllSides Organization would help us to bring this practice to life in our beloved Lakeside community and challenge us to bridge the divide in our polarized society at large. From my introductory conversation with John Gable, I felt his heart for this important goal and knew he would bring tremendous wisdom to impart to us.
Several powerful things which Gable shared that evening: The revenue-generating business model of media (mainstream as well as alternative sources) is structured to tear us apart from one another. One thing that exacerbates this situation is our choosing to be in personal “Filter Bubbles,” which feed us only self-reinforcing information from those with a point of view just like our own.
For anyone thinking “I could have told you that… but it’s the other side that’s the problem!” Gable noted this is not a political “left” or “right” challenge – but a “both” challenge – and the driving force behind the destructive, vitriolic polarization which gets in the way of us effectively working together in our society.
An additional challenge discussed was that most students going into journalism are doing so from an “advocacy” position to promote their own opinions and not to practice the objective information reporting that we once knew journalism to be. Gable added that this generation is getting the least diverse news feeds of any generation – and they do not proactively seek to understand differing points of view.
He strongly noted the need for modeling to this next generation how to have healthy disagreements to make progress and build stronger relationships. To emphasize this point, he shared the hopeful thinking that “disagreeing is a good thing. You accidentally discover humanity. We are wired to connect and find connection.”
As a practical call to action, Gable responded to a question regarding how to effectively dialogue with a person holding a different point of view by encouraging us that “the best way to earn trust and have others open up to you is to really listen to understand them first as a human being, not to tell them that you are right and they are wrong; rather to listen to understand where they are coming from.”
He noted that “doing so will result in the other person being willing to listen to you – truly and openly – and then amazing things can happen.”
Great wisdom indeed, as we Lakesiders seek to understand “all sides” to live our Community Practice, “Respect Differences & Create Harmony” both within the gates and beyond, into our wider worlds of influence.
