BY DON GOLDBERG
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more.” —Macbeth Act 5
Not so for me in my third act as I stepped onto the campus of Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., to attend the 2024 National Convention of Braver Angels, an organization where 106 alliances network with various groups dedicated to depolarizing the fractious divides in the American landscape—Red/Blue, Urban/Rural, Boomer/Gen Z, you get the picture. Like a Picasso self-portrait in his later years, all there but a little cockeyed.
The theme was “A Campaign for American Hope.” Not simply optimism but genuine hope. Not the thoughts and prayers of interfaith kumbaya, but civil conversation leading to civil action.
This poor player strutted upon this stage with a curious desire for courageous conversations between a 76-year-old liberal Seattleite and any conservatives I’d meet here. I didn’t tiptoe, didn’t stomp. I used my shoes as an icebreaker.
I own six identical pairs of shoes in different colors. For this conference I chose to wear a red shoe on the right foot, blue on the left. A walking conversation piece. Size me up. Ask where I stand.
“Well, I purchase my footwear online, lovingly used so I am literally walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. But my eyes are up here.”
It gets a smile, putting us face to face. Do I favor the blue side? Could be politics, or sciatica. A nod to my senior peeps. The body politic picks no bones with the human body.
Capping the metaphor: My shoe brand of choice? Allbirds. And as hawks or doves fly, given one wing, they go around in circles. Me? I’m here to put one foot in front of the other and walk the talk, share stories, and cross any bridge that divides us.
And with 1,200 feet, 300 reds and an equal number of blues we sat, side by side, to watch “Dancing with the Scars,” the June 27 Presidential Debate projected on the giant screen in Carthage College’s chapel. A sacred space defiled by a televised debacle. It was projected for sure—one side projecting his fakes and foibles, one side stumbling with his gift of gaffe.
The response in the room of we the people? Stunned. Literally. Tear-stained air? The blues were red with embarrassment for their guy. The reds, blue at the behavior of theirs. Together, one purple bruise. A collective WTF. A helluva way to bring us together.
Braver Angels is a nonpartisan organization and for this conference reds and blues showed up in equal numbers. In my experience, the scarlet MAGA crowd and the indigo progressives weren’t around to do battle.
These were serious sober folk, moderate in tone and passionate in desire. Movers over shakers. The full spectrum of a broad middle united by a love of country and a call for civility. Given one common distaste, it was for how the media (mass and social) frame the larger debate.
Mónica Guzmán, Braver Angels Senior Fellow for Public Practice and host of the podcast, “A Braver Way,” contrasted the contentious behavior put forth in the media with the civil discourse person-to-person at the convention:
“Out there, we have political debates that feel like manipulative theater. In here, we have Braver Angels Debates designed to help us clarify what we actually believe and what we’re actually disagreeing about so we can grow wiser in the process, find the arguments that speak most clearly to us, and engage in a collective search for truth.”
Over the weekend in 60 breakout sessions and debates on every polarizing issue conflicts—tempered by courageous conversations—kept us mentally and spiritually hydrated. As Braver Angels founder David Blankenhorn called it, “thirst for water from a deeper well.”
By staying curious I realized that everyone’s right in forming an opinion through a particular lens, but by staying open to one another we got a chance to peek through a human “Hubble,” and with a wider perspective expose ourselves a confluent universe of ideas. Policy geeks, grandmothers, entrepreneurs, and scholars—citizens of every stripe—willing to row together in one lifeboat to keep our ship of state afloat.
We debated. Broke bread together. Nothing was off the table: Farming economics, small-town values, the environment, immigration, and cancel culture. My mind was well-fed. One of the soft drinks offered was grape Kool-Aid. I joked with a red friend. “I know it’s purple, but do you think it’s OK to ‘drink the Kool-Aid?’”
We discussed the influence of influencers and the preponderance of platforms in the 21st-century “blogosphere” and “metaverse.”
We opened each other’s eyes.
From my point of view, most of us live in rooms with tiny windows, some with bars. What we see through the looking glass is real and “immediate.” But the biggest window we have is a 65-inch video screen. And what comes through that is “mediated.” The digital natives got the picture. Or as journalist Danny Schecter wrote, “The more you watch, the less you know.”
Young and old digital and analog natives we sought to conform perception with reality. I shared my elderly wisdom saying it’s healthier to be stretched by living in the paradox of diverse points of view rather than be shredded by the intransigence of two sides pulling against the middle.
To my delightful surprise, the choice to purposely step outside of my comfort zone let me feel more at ease and engaged in collaborative dialogue. I avoided saying “in my day,” especially to the college kids. Listening to them reinforced that “my day” is today. And their time has come. Stop being curious and you might as well die, but by staying curious, by getting to know the “other,” freed me to better know myself.
Honor points of view and quest “talking points.” I told the young’uns that I used to be the craziest person in the room and now what frightens me most is that I’m not. This old Boomer was once a hippie rebel. Time may heal some wounds, but I found the sure cure for oppositional defiance disorder is curating curiosity.
No one came looking for a fight. Regardless of politics, we all respected diversity, equality, and inclusion. How to get there and measure it? Up for a Braver Angels debate.
Sometimes the path to collaboration and civility comes through art. The “Braver Lens” exhibit celebrated this in a photography gallery.
Another group of reds working with blues in collaboration with Braver Angels partner New York Theatre Workshop created an original theatrical performance from shared stories of participants. Conflict created drama, but in their “Thanksgiving Dinner” play, the result was empathy for performers as well as the audience.
I chose the music workshop. A group of 8 of us (4 red, 4 blue, varied ages) expressed our sides on the issue of free speech. Then, in two sessions, we worked together to write a song on the topic, each contributing words, melodies, and ideas, editing one another and finally performing the piece.
It may not reach a radio audience, but it surely presented an audio radiance.
I left the convention with an open heart and an intention to dedicate my third act to cross the bridge to the other side making heaven on earth through collaboration. My advice? Start talking to strangers. You can begin by joining this remarkable organization.
Don Goldberg sees the world through progressive lenses with a focus on the absurd. He has created nationally syndicated radio programs from rock history to political satire. He currently works supporting Braver Angels’ podcast “A Braver Way.”