This month, VOICES Radio Hour launches its Common Ground Conversation series with the promise of getting together in a safe and supportive setting to have conversations about tough topics. It’s our firm belief that one-on-one conversations are the way to start chipping away at the walls that have built up between us as a society. In this era of social media and 24-hour news on demand, we have never been more able to escape down the rabbit hole into our own ideologies. None of us exist in a vacuum — so how do we look outside of ourselves for the connections we so deeply crave?
For this first in the series, we are joined by two men — a Democrat, Peter Westcott, and a Republican, Caleb Waller — along with mediator Paul Dankers. With agreed upon parameters, the conversation navigated sensitive topics with mutual respect and open mindedness. Below is an excerpt from that conversation, to be aired in full on KDNK this Friday, June 20, at 6pm.
As a teacher, Peter Westcott finds that to help high school students learn to be good humans, there are certain things that can be taught, and others that must be discovered by the students themselves.
But how to define “a good person?” Wescott would ask the students these questions: “How do you know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong?” and “Where do you go if you’re unsure?” These questions should lead to discussions back and forth without judgments, Westcott said.
Through discovering and clarifying, students are able to think deeply and reflect on a particular set of values through the lens of religion or science, or other sources.
For Caleb Waller, the most important thing is to never assume and never project. “Unfortunately, in this political divide, there is a projection that is put on a person just because they have a party affiliation that they think a certain way,” Waller reflected.
He gave the example of a conversation he had with someone who went to a rally at Sayre Park. “I don’t understand how you could be a Republican,” they told him. “Are you a racist?” These types of assumptions put people in a box before discovering who a person truly is or what their core values are as an individual. To know individuals based on the values they live by is the real challenge, and from that, we can begin to learn to love and embrace our neighbors.
“We need more people loving their neighbors,” Waller concluded.