Glenn Beck wants you to buy his book “Arguing with Idiots” so you can argue with your dumb uncle from Berkeley over the holidays.
The Village Square thinks you should enjoy the turkey and love your uncle even though you don’t agree so very much, whether he’s from Berkeley or Butte, Buffalo or Boston. You might even learn something new from each other?
(Photo credit.)
Last week in a forum at the Newseum in Washington D.C., sponsored by Characters Unite, a project of USA Networks to promote an appreciation of diversity, syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker didn’t just mention us, she kind of called us heroes. You may watch it online HERE (this clip starts at 1:11:00):
TOM BROKAW:
Kathleen, is there somebody outside the political arena who the country turns to? Is there a modern John Wayne if you will. There was time when Colin Powell filled that role for a lot of people before he went into the administration. Oprah in her own way fills that role for a lot of people. Are there others out there that you know about or that we should be paying attention to that are not getting enough attention?
KATHLEEN PARKER:
I would say this: The people out there who are doing important work are not known to us because they’re not celebrities and they’re not famous and they are doing very important work in their communities. And I’ll throw out just one name: A lawyer in Tallahassee Florida named Allan Katz has done something that I think is aimed at what we’re trying to accomplish here. He and another person formed this group called “To The Village Square” and they put together a board of half Republicans and half Democrats and they get together and have civil discourse about issues of importance. They have meetings, they have dinners, the public is invited and they’re actually moving forward with actually doing substantive things in their communities. But American character is a grassroots operation. It starts there. To sign a pledge is great, but to make anything happen you have to do something and that’s what they’ve done and it’s a wonderful prototype for what we’re trying to do.
Just another reason why you should help us raise our community match for our project We the People (donate HERE).
Here is a promo for Characters Unite. While the forum is happening now, it appears that pre-registration is closed, but I will post the video when it is available. Very Village Square and important to watch.
Big Village Square news: Our co-founder former City Commissioner Allan Katz has been appointed by President Obama to serve at the Ambassador to Portugal. Check out the story HERE. Read the White House Press Release HERE. Coincidentally, we’re roasting Allan tonight! Info HERE. Can’t make it but like to honor Allan? Help us raise money for our project We the People and blow Allan’s socks off tonight with how well we did!
The Village Square holds our first fundraiser tomorrow night, Tuesday December 1, 5:30 to 7 PM at The Challenger Center with Allan Katz: The Roast, featuring Allan Katz: The Movie (and a special guest via “Satellite”). Our goal: Raise $50,000 for our project We the People. Can’t make it, you can still help by making a tax-deductible donation (Allan will receive a list of people making donations).
Hat tip to Lea, Queen of All Things Internet.
From Tom Purcell’s blog:
When the guest next to him discovered his conservative/libertarian thinking, the fellow said loudly, “I can’t believe I’m sitting next to a Republican!”
“It was,” says Stein, “as if I was wearing not only a white hood, but a Nazi armband.”
So accustomed had Stein become to such broadsides — common experiences for conservatives living in progressive bastions — he wrote a humorous book on the subject: “I Can’t Believe I’m Sitting Next to a Republican: A Survival Guide for Conservatives Marooned Among the Angry, Smug, and Terminally Self-Righteous.”
So what to do when bipolar political philosophies are seated next to each other at the Thanksgiving table?
Make a concerted effort to get beyond “straw man” stereotypes.
“In theory, liberalism is predicated on openness to varied perspectives, but talk to lots of liberals and what you’ll hear is that all conservatives are greedy, hardhearted knuckle draggers,” says Stein. “To them, ‘conservative’ is another way of saying ‘warmongering,’ ‘racist,’ ‘homophobic,’ not to mention ‘aching to wipe out every last polar bear for the sake of Big Oil.’”
Who wouldn’t loathe a fellow with beliefs like that?
The truth is conservatives, just as liberals, come in all shapes and sizes; many are as nuanced, complex and thoughtful as anybody else.
The truth is progressives and conservatives agree with each other more than they are aware.
“Discovering the common ground can only occur when discussions proceed in a logical and factual manner,” says Stein. “If you want to argue a point and demonstrate the truthfulness of your position, be sure to have your facts straight.”
Stein gave one example pertaining to the health care debate.
“Some progressives believe that conservatives are simply dupes of the insurance industry stampeded by phony propaganda, and, yes, that we are racists,” he says. “The fact is, it’s a lot easier to name-call than deal with our arguments, starting with the likelihood that not only will a government takeover of health care have devastating effects on the economy, but it will not be good for health care.”
Another example: Some progressives believe that conservatives could not care less about the poor.
“What we believe is that conservative polices, such as tax incentives to hire, are a great deal more beneficial to the poor than the polices that came out of the Great Society,” says Stein. “Such policies encouraged women to raise children without fathers. Today, in some communities, 70 percent of children are born to single mothers.”
Stein used to think it best to avoid such discussions at the Thanksgiving table, but his position has changed over the years.
“We are facing a lot of challenges in our country and we really need to discuss them in a civil and thoughtful manner.”
Yup…
We hope you’ll join us. We’ve got a fundraising goal and any small amount you can contribute can help us get there. Thankyouverymuch.
Newt Gingrich, Al Sharpton and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan were on Meet the Press this morning discussing their mutual effort to improve America’s educational performance as a part of Race to the Top, a national competition between schools for billions of dollars. The mutual effort of these strange bedfellows screams Village Square, so here’s a sampling from their appearance (emphasis added):
Newt Gingrich: “In a time when we have a liberal Democratic president willing to take on the establishment on education and is prepared to say every state should adopt drama bold reforms, and politics is the art of the possible, our children deserve a change to see us come together to put their future above partisanship and try to find a way to take on the establishment in both parties…”
Al Sharpton: We’ve got to find the common ground. What President Obama said to us in a meeting in May, if we agree on 70% can’t we achieve that? Can’t we move forward. The problem is, we’ve all stayed within our battle lines and the kids have suffered. When we have gone out in these cities so far, the kids don’t care that he’s a Republican and I’m a Democrat…”
Newt Gingrich: ‘I want to bring it down to what’s wrong with Washington today. The three of us are making a positive gamble. We’re each risking to some extent our reputation and our future to say “What if we come together? What if we achieve a breakthrough?” Now we not. But I think the country is tired of politicians finding a reason not to try to work together and not to try to gamble on the future. On this topic, the President has said publicly in speeches, which didn’t help him get the nomination, that he favored fundamental change in education even if it made the unions uncomfortable… but it does require the gamble on our part on good faith.’
(Hat tip to the Knight Foundation.)
Previous studies had indicated that trends in technology have us growing more distant from our more diverse local geographic neighborhoods in favor of dispersed weaker electronic ties.
This Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks. And, when we examine people’s full personal network – their strong and weak ties – internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks.
ANSWER: They build a problem-solving community Wikipedia. Help us build one by making even a small tax-deductible contribution to our fund raising drive HERE.
Choosing a name for a new concept is an interesting exercise. You look at this blank piece of paper and, literally, anything can be put there.
I can’t even remember now what the competing names for The Village Square were. I do know why we picked “The Village Square,” it was Albert Einstein’s amazing quote: “To the Village Square we must carry the facts of nuclear energy. From there must come America’s voice.” What a central concept to everything American, to everything we’ve ever been. Our forefathers abandoned the way that every government on earth had ever operated… they made the bold move to make the people the boss. Their gamble made the town hall (or as we call it, the village square) the seat of power.
Once we decided we loved “The Village Square,” the only thing that stood in our way was that are a million things named “Village Square.” We’d be violating every common sense notion of branding: Go unique.
Ultimately, we decided, the Village Square was never about something new, it was about reviving what was old and what has always been there. The fact that there are a bazillion Village Squares is exactly and profoundly correct.
Turns out – on the occasion of our 3rd birthday – our high concept, low PR branding worked. Despite all the “Village Square” name competition… We google #1. And while we love being first, and know it’s you who’s made us first, we couldn’t possibly be happier that the “Village Square” has pages and pages other google hits.
It helps to remind us that with just a wee bit of reaching, The Village Square is everywhere.
