My husband and I had dinner with another couple for their birthdays last night. We had what I call a good political discussion, because instead of villifying the opposition, we talked about why people thought differently and what circumstances made people xenophobic and fearing change. Our friend said high school kids ought to have to do field trips to different parts of our country so they could understand differing viewpoints. City kids go to the country and vice versa, an exchange program right here in our enormous country. It's too easy to think everybody thinks like we do, when circumstances, local culture, race, ethnicity and other factors play a huge part.
I like that we were trying to problem solve how to dialogue with those different from ourselves. And not for what we could "teach" them, but for what we could learn from them. We need to create spaces for listening. Through listening, we validate the other and ourselves.
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