Some bright spots in 2017
A year after the election, we decided to look for signs of hope. We found them all around us.
Year-end news roundups usually focus on catastrophes and worrisome trends. For this last issue of the year, we offer a personalized roundup of encouraging trends—brief reports on people and projects that have inspired hope in us.
Bridging the divide: After the 2016 election, it hit me hard when I realized that the secretary at my son’s school voted for Donald Trump because she honestly believed that Hillary Clinton wanted to take away her guns. What I thought was a bizarre and exaggerated political claim was, for her, a true statement. But she and I had never talked about it, and it was hard to envision an environment in which we might.
Since then, I have been inspired to learn about the number and variety of people and organizations who have been trying to foster that kind of conversation. Hi from the Other Side, created by two graduate students in Boston, arranges phone calls between people from opposite sides of the political spectrum. The People’s Supper has organized more than 500 “bridging” and “healing” suppers. Living Room Conversations has been connecting people through Skype and in person. The Listen First project has held private retreats on democracy and power, trying to reshape political discourse. Shop Talk Live founder Theo Wilson has used a barber shop in Denver to foster in-person conversations. Many of these organizations are using the principles developed by Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage and Renewal on how to hold a constructive conversation. There’s a People’s Supper under way in my own community. I think I will invite the school secretary. —Amy Frykholm
