I’m posting Part 1: Braver Angels today, US Election Day, to share the message of Braver Angels and their invitation to join their Election Night Moments of Peace. From 7:00pm to 2:00am EST tonight, November 3, Braver Angels will be holding 15-minute religious and secular, online gatherings as brief places of respite on this eventful night. Both religious and secular/civic leaders will offer their perspectives, highlighting the vast collection of communities that reflect America. You can find more information about the Moments of Peace and the organization itself at www.braverangels.org.
“I learned respect for some worthy Trump supporters. The discussion on both sides make me optimistic for America.”
I wrote this in the chat room after listening to my first Braver Angels online debate a few weeks ago. After almost 2 hours of hearing people from all over American give their reasons for an affirmative or negative position to the resolution “Vote for Trump and Pence”, the moderator April Lawson asked us to write in the zoom chat something that we learned. As the comments rolled in, I realized that I wasn’t the only who felt the profound potential of the last 120 minutes.
I recently learned about the Braver Angels from a friend in Philadelphia, who is a former lawyer that now does whatever she wants. She returned from a solo, ten day RV trip just the day before I spoke with her. She took the trip because she wanted to talk to people who are not urban-living like her, and get a better understanding about rural, political perspectives. She prepared all the necessities for the self-isolation she would impose on herself by sleeping in parking lots and driveways, and set off in her 20 foot, rented RV to visit with friends, and friends of friends, in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. We spoke about the many Trumps signs on front lawns, and the conversations she had with some of the people who put them there. She spoke with a few Biden supporters, but they didn’t want to be too showy about their leanings. Biden signs were limited, she said.
It is ironic , but Trump did us the favour of removing the illusion that America is a United State. The fault lines didn’t begin with him, but he is now the epicentre of the quake. He has exposed deep fissures in our political lives that have seeped into the personal, and he has wilfully pushed people, brothers and sisters, apart. But removing him from office and replacing him with another contentious contender is not going to resolve the schism. The election itself has ignited a level of discord not seen under her spacious skies since the Civil War, and has now become downright frightening, with street-level retailers taking storm-like precautions, and hundreds of thousands of Americans wondering if their Constitutionally-protected vote is even going to be counted. One politician and a hundred political appointees can’t fix this. We, the People, have to fix this.
I told my friend how concerned I was about the divisions across America. She recommended I check out an organization that she discovered, called Braver Angels. I Googled it while we spoke.
To meet the current moment, at this time of national crisis, we need more than civility. We need to challenge ourselves to work together when we disagree. We need bravery.
Braver Angels
To be brave in the Braver Angel’s sense, you have to be willing to open your heart and listen thoughtfully to people who think differently than you. You can challenge another person’s thoughts, but in a way that embraces learning rather than lecture. You need to wilfully pursue commonality, and if its not found, you respectfully disagree with the thinking without disparaging the person. And the bravery doesn’t end once the debate is over. It takes courage to continue testing the rational of your position. The night I listened to my first Braver Angels debate, I saw the bravery of men and women across the political spectrum.
I thought of Ruth Bader Ginsburg after watching that first debate. In her friendship with Anthony Scalia, her Supreme Court rival, she showed us how to love the person even if you don’t love the thinking. RBG and her family regularly shared New Year’s Eve festivities with the Scalia family. Whether clinking champagne flutes at the stroke of midnight or crossing burnished pens in their often opposing opinions, I imagine a mutual respect for the intensity of thought they gave to their positions, and to the thoughtfulness they gave to each other in friendship. Their friendship is a model for Red and Blue alike.
The Braver Angels debate format is a conversation via zoom that grows and develops through a series of speeches that support or oppose the resolution, with one or two questions from the body of participants after the speech. A balanced of perspectives is maintained using colour-coded chat hands that can be raised for questions. The moderator, or Chair, plays an important role of facilitating the debate. April Lawson was evenhanded, kind, and humorous. In the COVID era of at-home zoom interaction, it felt like a living room conversation between new acquaintances. April’s kitchen cabinets and coffee pot on the counter could be seen behind her.
The division in America today sets a course where justice will be won for some rather than shared by all. It mocks the words of the Pledge of Allegiance that every child recites before their school day begins. To paraphrase from the Braver Angels website, a more perfect union will not be possible until the wounds of the left and right are healed, until our institutions are challenged to be better, and until we collectively commit to building better communities. This is how America can be truly great in our time. We, the People, can fix this, and the model of the Braver Angels is one of the best tools out there to get started.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I reached out to the two Pennsylvania State Coordinators for Braver Angels, Karen Cotter and Karen Ward, after finding them on the website. I wanted to know how I could help. We spoke by zoom a few days later.
You have listened with the proverbial humble and contrite heart — willing to hear and consider, willing to reconsider and hear again, willing to befriend those whose opinions are far afield from where yours are, willing to be make peace where there has been discord. You are hopeful, optimistic, always searching for ways that we can be better together and that example will be what creates greatness in discord in our neighbour to the south. You post is insightful and I hope for good things for the American people after reading this. Courage my dear friend. We have your back and will lift up your wings.
Thank you, Kathy.
You have always been a brave soul Patty and a searcher and I love this group. If I were American I’d be in ❤️. As I sit here holding my breath the morning after I am trying to understand how this vote could be so close. As a Canadian it’s baffling to me but I also realize, after many US road trips, the landscape of rural America and the poverty and adversity seen in many cities is different than here. This certainly has consequences and regardless of who wins this election it’s crystal clear that the leadership needs to finally listen, learn and actually help these people live better lives. Regardless of the outcome, for my own mental health I will be weaning myself off the political junk. Keep the posts coming.