Chop Wood, Carry Water 4/23
Wednesday Mini-edition
Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!
No official newsletter today, but I did want to tell you quickly about an experience I had yesterday that I think many of you would like.
You’ve likely heard of Storycorps; since their founding in 2003, they’ve recorded nearly 700,000 people across the country talking about their lives. These recordings are collected in the U.S. Library of Congress and in their online archive, which is now the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered. A few of these stories are broadcast weekly on NPR to over 12 million listeners.
Well, recently I found out about an offshoot program of theirs. It’s called One Small Step; its goal is to “bring people with different views together to record a conversation — not to debate politics — but simply to get to know each other as people.” They basically take a liberal and a conservative and have them talk about anything but politics for 50 minutes, with the hope that such conversations will help bridge the yawning chasm between Americans on the left and the right.
I’ve long dreamed of launching a similar project, but knew I’d never have the bandwidth. When I heard about One Small Step, then, I felt very excited. After a phone call with the director I asked to participate in a session myself. Yesterday it finally happened!
The way the program works is: you enter some brief biographical and political information about yourself into a profile. The folks at OSS then match you with someone who has a few things in common with you, but also falls on the other side of the political spectrum. I, for example, was “matched” with a middle-aged woman I’ll call Susan. She’s a mom, and has pets. Beyond that we’re pretty different on paper: she’s a Methodist pastor from rural Iowa, and I’m, well, me.
Yesterday we spoke for an hour, with a moderator present the whole time to help lightly steer the conversation. I have to say it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. I’m not sure if my gal was a Trump supporter, but I’m assuming she is at least politically conservative. Either way, she and I had a really lovely conversation about all kinds of things—except for politics—and by the end were marveling about how much we had in common. We even exchanged email addresses.
Do I think that either of us changed the other’s political views? Almost definitely not. But when I imagine a rural pastor in Iowa now will I automatically assume the worst? I won’t! I’ll imagine someone like Susan!
I strongly believe that projects like these are part of how this country can and will recover. They support what I’ve always called my “neighbor theory—” that we hate people we don’t know who hold opposing political opinions, but when our next door neighbor—who sometimes takes in our trash bins for us—does, we are able to separate the human from the political. Sometimes we can even have an actual conversation with them based in empathy and good will.
Now, I can almost hear some of you saying “but these are terrible people who do terrible things! Why should we try to bridge the gap?” And of course there are some truly irredeemable Trump supporters. But others can be reached. And even the worst can at least meet a “lib” for the first time and maybe be divested of the idea that “owning” us is such a victory.
I guess I just believe that showing each other our humanity can never be a bad thing.
Anyway. The folks at One Small Step are looking for many more volunteers on both sides to have these 50-minute conversations. I told them I’d be happy to spread the word, as I fully believe in what this project is trying to achieve. If you think you might like to try it you can learn more and sign up here. I highly recommend it!
OK, folks. That’s it for today. Don’t forget that if you need call scripts today 5 Calls has a ton of great ones.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a full email. Thanks!
Jess
If folks would like to go one step further, Braver Angels sets you up with a conversation partner of a different background/politically leaning where you share your perspective on certain political topics - not to change minds, but to increase understanding. My sister has been meeting with an older gentleman from rural Vermont and it's been great! They've both learned a lot from each other.
I live in corn country and these aren’t misinformed people. These are hateful, hypocritical, willfully ignorant people. These are people who encourage their sons to be violent, (we have a group of about 12-14 LARPing around town in their neck gators and backpacks on weekends). These are people who attend church every week and are constantly cheating on their spouses, these are people who will say n***** in the grocery store or make fried chicken and watermelon jokes in the middle of an antique store (yep, I was there to hear it!). These people deserve only shunning for the rest of their miserable, ignorant lives. The larger problem is smart, decent people who won’t get off their ass and vote because no one promised them a pony.