Thunderhead clouds gathered overhead as about 75 people turned out last week in Charlemont for a program, “Public Discourse: Bridging Political and Religious Divides,” as part of an annual lecture program.
The speakers, two professors from Marlboro College, looked on as the Charlemont Federated Church pews filled up with a mostly older crowd that braved the storm warnings — many of them having just listened to that evening’s news stories from the Helsinki summit.
“When public discourse is just about establishing dominance, not finding the better solution, then democracy itself is corrupted,” said the advance publicity for this Charlemont Forum program. “How do we turn this around?”
Political science professor Meg Mott, whose grandfather, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish, had taught her that “words matter and republics are surprisingly fragile,” told those gathered that in today’s polarized political climate people seem to be shying away from having real conversations.
“Democracy depends on deliberation,” she said. “It’s a better thing to disagree, to hang out with somebody who does not think like you do. It’s good for democracy, it’s good for the brain, it’s good for the human spirit — especially when those disagreements are productive.”
Amer Latif, a Pakistani-born professor of religious studies, used the Bible story of Jonah to illustrate the “self-inflicted harm of wanting someone else’s misery” before leading the audience on a guided meditation to make peace in their minds with a person “with whom you have difficulty, who makes you angry, who frustrates you.”
Clearly, those attending were eager to get past the political frustration they’ve been feeling.
Yet, when the talk opened to questions from the crowd toward the end, it was as though the storm clouds could hold out no longer, as the tension from those gathered with differing beliefs rose.
“I have to erase what I know to follow your direction,” said one woman who specializes in ‘conscious communication.’ “This brings in the division of politics with spirituality. I want to integrate those two things. Yet … I have to erase my emotional reaction to the news.”
Another woman attending because she wanted to open a dialogue across the divide asked, “How do you behave when your government is separating families, taking away children, losing children?” There are times, she added, “when moral outrage is truly appropriate. … I do not want my government behaving this way! We’re very challenged in the particular climate we’re in because we’re so polarized. There is a place to draw a line and say, ‘No.’”
Those of us who truly see the need to reconnect with others with whom we disagree politically and ideologically — even as the political divisions deepen — are feeling, as one man attending put it, “The need to have those conversations is shocking, because our political leaders are using demagoguery in building our fear.”
Rather than blind faith, we need to get back in touch with our values and see one another as people. Our needed conversations across the divide must be built on reason, respect, generosity and a recognition that we’re all in this together.
That’s the reality, despite what too often feels like deliberate attempts by those in politics and media who shriek loudest, try to instill fear and drive a wedge to divide us further to suit their interests, not those of our democracy.
Richie Davis is the senior reporter for the Greenfield Recorder. He has reported on issues in Franklin County for more than 40 years.