Recently, the First Parish hosted a Provincial Congress featuring talks and discussions concerning the past, present and future of democracy in our country. So breakout groups were tasked with discussing what democracy is to them personally in hopes of getting people to talk again — in hopes of beginning to heal the deep political divide in our country.
What a great idea! Why not further these efforts through the time-honored format of formal public debates? In college debates, each team is given the subject to argue and the side for which they must prepare their arguments. Thus members must explore ideas potentially opposite to their own in preparing their team’s arguments. This provides a safe, public venue for discussion of heated topics while also precluding members from being targeted for expressing unpopular, personal ideas.
One might choose multi-generational aged teams to help air a wide range of interests and ideas. Moreover, public debates offer a way to diffuse some of the tensions building up between sides that could lead to unfortunate extremes such as the French/Russian Revolutions of long ago, which birthed new governments at the expense of great terror and suffering.
Certainly there were local public debates in the years leading up to 1776 and our Declaration of Independence. Why not take a note from the past in reunifying our states today?
God bless.
Sharon Reidy
Thoreau Street
