Hello to the world outside of Tallahassee!
January 4th, 2008
If you read about The Village Square in Kathleen Parker’s column, we’re delighted you stopped by for a visit. While you’re on hold with Mayflower Van Lines you’re booking so that you too can be a part of our Village Square (for the time being we’re only in Tallahassee), we’d like to suggest a less extreme alternative. . . join us online.
We’ll be having a conversation between neighbors that remembers the whole borrowing-a-cup-of-sugar neighborly thing. Hard to know exactly where that will go, but we’ll start by agreeing that no one will be calling anyone else a nazi. We’ve done all sorts of peer-reviewed scientific study that suggests that usually doesn’t go so well.
We think there’s something very American about real discussions across ideologies seeking the very best ideas we’ve got, so we’re jumping right in to do just that. We’re expecting a serious amount of disagreement, but we’re going to “Fight Like Founding Fathers” - have it out when need be, but stay connected and keep right on talking. Maybe we’ll even go out for a beer.
And, after all, you are our neighbor in this land of blog. So pull up a kitchen chair (and sign up for our “not-Tallahassee” email list here, we’ll let you know when we’re coming to an oh-so-very-civil city near you.)
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17 Comments Add your own
1. Elizabeth | January 5th, 2008 at 12:47 am
I did come here from Ms. Parker’s column, and I want to thank you for what you’re building - a community that works together to tackle and maybe even solve today’s issues, and that keeps talking WITH rather than AT each other when they disagree. I will be using this site to teach my kids proper civics (the type that includes civility to those with whom you disagree.)
2. Liz | January 5th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Thanks Elizabeth. So far our civil conversations have yielded far more agreement than even I actually expected, and on really tough issues. It hasn’t necessarily been easy agreement, but a careful look at the facts tends to create a mature consensus. Contrast that to an online conversation that assumes the other half of the American population to be “evil”, you tend to make more progress. Go figure.
I wrote a piece for our local paper last week that provides a good example of just how far our “dialogue” has unraveled.
Find it here:
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071231/OPINION05/712310304/1006/OPINION
We hope you and your kids will come visit us regularly to chat.
3. shirley levin | January 5th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
What a concept! Sounds like you’re filling a need. I am anxious to know more about you and what I might be able to do about creating our own Village here in Jenks, Oklahoma.
4. Liz | January 5th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Shirley, we’ll let you know when we’re ready to expand to other cities. Shouldn’t be too long. . .
5. Jim Catron | January 6th, 2008 at 8:23 am
I too read Kathleen Parker’s article. You are commended for recreating and making inclusive what used to exist in communities across this country. And let’s keep “raising the bar.” Promises without action bring frustration.
6. Greg | January 6th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Hi Liz.
Read the article this morning. Looks great.
Quick question, how important is trust and trustworthiness to the success of the Village Square?
Thanks,
Greg
7. Richard Hughes | January 6th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I read Kathleen Parker’s column in the Orlando Sentinel this morning and had to visit your site and send this note. I think this is an absolutely wonderful idea and hope it takes off all over Florida and the nation. Thank you very much for getting this going!
8. Mike Harter | January 6th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I have been hoping something like this would happen.
9. Kip Walls | January 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Thanks for providing this site to share viewpoints! I likewise read Parker’s column in the Oklahoman and hope this all leads to more respected and knowledgeable and public personalities rise to the occasion to lead Americans out of the quagmire threatening our country and society. Thanks again!!
10. Jesse | January 7th, 2008 at 5:08 am
A site wherein one could participate in a civilized discussion of ideas based on facts rather than hyperboly is one I would welcome. However, a site with the purpose of beginning a new political party would likely preclude any hope of maintaining civilized, fact based, hyperboly free discussion over any extended period of time.
11. Liz | January 7th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Sorry I’ve been slow to respond - big “Dinner at the Square” coming up Tuesday, I’ve been BUSY.
Greg- I’m going to go with the old Reagan cold war line “trust but verify.” We actually invite participants to bring their laptops to dinner and fact check along with the conversation. We also do fact-checking afterwards when there was a difference of opinion.
If political advertisers thought we’d demand truth, big-fat-lying-ads wouldn’t wouldn’t be worth it to them. Sadly, however, they do.
Jesse, you won’t be finding any third party political activity here - we’re a nonprofit and won’t be partisan, even if partisan is in the middle. We’ll be working on improving the dialogue & checking facts. To the extent that a political candidate follows principles consistent with ours, good for them (and good for America, in my view), but we work on behalf of the principle, not any candidate.
12. Jim | January 7th, 2008 at 10:10 am
If the, “tothevillagesquare.org”, can create a political culture that rewards that politician who best achieves compropmise through bipartisan cooperation it will have turned conventional thinking on it head.
Now that’s a paradime worth instituting.
13. Roy Minet | January 7th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I, too, saw the Parker column and have just read most of the stuff on this website. Well done! You guys sound great!! However, I remain quite sad.
I have been very concerned for many years as I have watched the decline of the republican form of government our founding fathers created for us. It is incredible that the Constitution and its principles can be so flagrantly ignored and violated. This MUST be corrected and WILL be corrected. The only question is whether we the people are going to regain control, or whether it will eventually get “fixed” when it collapses of its own weight and corruption (as has been the recurring theme in world history). I am generally an opptimist, but I fear things are too outa control and the “decline and fall” is looming as more and more likely.
Things are very complex, but the essence of the problem can be simply stated: we the people were just not vigilant enough (we were clearly warned about that by our founding fathers). Productive people were too busy producing and allowed others to run the governemnt. A new kind of monster evolved called a “politician.” Now, we have two (not very) different gangs of politicians who will say or do anything just to hang onto and ever expand their powers.
There are many well-intentioned efforts to move us back toward the right direction, but they are too fragmented. We may win a few battles here and there, but the war is being lost. The foundations are crumbling, so applying some patches to the roof won’t help for long.
Right now, dissatisfaction of the electorate with politicians seems to be at a peak. There is yet another clamor for “change,” but the direction of the change needed is not at all properly defined or even understood. So, we will likely get a meaningless “change” to some new platitude-spouting politicians who will continue to ignore the Constitution and indulge in expanding government powers with more vote-buying schemes.
“Power corrupts” is one of the truest statements ever uttered. We need something to unify all the fragmeted efforts behind a movement to simplify government, reduce its power and return power to the people where it Constitutionally belongs. Ronald Reagan moved a couple of small steps in that direction 25 years ago and we have been seriously backsliding since. Something radical is needed soon, but I don’t see anyone remotely likely to win an election who can provide the required leadership.
The Village Square is good. The efforts of Senators Nunn and Boren are good. Maybe I feel just a teeny bit better. I’ll continue to try to help.
14. Mike | January 7th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
It all sounds refreshing to me. I look forward to more.
15. Curt | January 8th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Read Kathleen’s column in the 1/7 St. Paul Pioneer Press. Live in Wisconsin, hearts in Minnesota. I don’t use large words, sort of a political bulldozer. Our country Made a mistake many elections ago when we limited the term for only the president. How can we have a true voice when our elected officials have been in office so long they can “phone in” their campaign. Herb Kohl here in Wisconsin has so much money that the Republicans could only throwup a token candidate…can’t even remember his name. When we as voters start replacing the “old guard” with fresh faces and ideas, then the phrase “We the People” will really ring loud and clear
16. Susan Raybuck | January 9th, 2008 at 12:15 am
You’ve no idea how my heart leapt to read of To the Village Square in Kathleen Parker’s column. I’ve nearly despaired of us coming to our senses as a nation and restoring civility and the ability to accept or at least tolerate those who disagree with us. The truth is that in a genuine democracy it only works when we listen to all the voices and learn from one another. We can meet in the middle, in the Village Square.
17. Kate Dierdorff | January 9th, 2008 at 12:48 am
I read Kathleen Parker’s article in the Colorado Springs Gazette. I believe we need to find “Statesmen”gender neutral), leaders with the guts to listen and learn and then make decisions for our Country which benefit the Country and its people. I love your concept and hope it births those desparately needed Statemen.
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