- [Announcer] This program is made possible with support from Connecticut Humanities.

welcome to CUTLINE in the Community.

My name is Glenn Mitoma, I'm the Director of Dodd Human Rights Impact at the University of Connecticut and co-host of this special dialogue event, Democracy and Community Toward a Civic Reconstruction.

Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are mostly Skyping in from the ancestral homelands of the Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Nipmuc and Lenape peoples who have stewarded this land throughout the generations.

I thank them for their strength and resilience in protecting this land and endeavor toward being a good neighbor in our shared Connecticut.

I'm joined by my colleague and co-host Brendan Kane, Director of the Democracy and Dialogue Initiative.

And we are thrilled to partner with CPTV's CUTLINE to bring you this look at Dialogue and Action.

I'm even more thrilled that we are joined tonight by 14 of our fellow nutmeggers from across the state who have all agreed to let you listen as they engage in the hard work of thinking about and discussing the state of our democracy and their place in it.

But I want to mention now that the dialogue you are about to see is one we hope all communities in Connecticut will engage in around dinner tables, in schools and libraries and churches.

Wherever people are ready to think about how we can make our democracy more inclusive, more effective, more accountable, and more just.

Toward that end, you can find resources on how to host your own democracy and community dialogue at our website, dodd.uconn.edu.

Dodd Impact is a program of UConn's Human Rights Institute.

Our mission is to advance a culture of human rights on campus, in Connecticut and around the world.

Central to our approach is the recognition of a close connection between human rights and democracy.

At this moment, in our history we face a staggering range of challenges for both democracy and human rights.

Rising authoritarianism, endemic structural racism, widening economic inequality and of course, a global pandemic that had cost the lives of nearly 8,000 Connecticut residents and affected the health and livelihoods of countless others.

I believe we have an opportunity to re-engage with one another, to reweave our civic fabric and to rebuild our democracy.

Toward that end, I'm delighted to be able to take part in this conversation, democracy and community with this amazing group of people and with my friend and colleague, Director of Democracy and Dialogues Initiative, Brendan Kane.

- Thanks much, Glenn.

It's a real pleasure to be here and I'd also like to welcome everyone tonight.

The purpose of today's dialogue is to invite you to have a conversation about your political beliefs and the experiences and values that inform those beliefs.

We hope this dialogue fosters mutual unerstanding, helps establish trust and connection in community.

The purpose is not to persuade others or to solve each other's problems, but to share, to listen, to try to understand, and then also to think individually and collectively about the present state of our democracy, as Glenn was just mentioning and about the sorts of actions that we might take individually and together to ensure greater participation in our political system and renew our commitment to the values upon which it is built.

We hope that today's dialogue will be the beginning of more conversations and dialogues across the state.

But first let's take a moment to get to know each other before we head into our dialogue.

And so this is what I'm going to ask all of us to do.

In one breath, please share your first name, where you're calling in from, and something that is giving you strength and grounding in these challenging times.

Go ahead, Anamaria.

- Hello everyone.

My name is Anamaria.

I am from Vernon, Connecticut.

And something that's giving me grounding during this time is the Hamilton soundtrack.

I love the music on that soundtrack and that really has been giving me strength.

- Hi, my name is Eric.

I'm calling from Milford, Connecticut.

And one thing that gives me strength during these times is working with my students and helping one another through any feelings of anxiety that we might have, keeping one another responsible even though times are tough right now.

- Hi, I'm Grace.

I'm calling in from West Hartford, Connecticut.

And one thing giving me strength during this time is the endless pile of books that I can choose from whenever I need to.

- Wonderful!

Thanks so much all three of you.

Great to see you this evening.

To start us out, I'm going to read some prompts.

So there are actually two and you can choose one or you can kind of run them together as make sense to you.

Can you tell a story from your life that has shaped your current political beliefs, values or partisan affiliations and, or what experience feels like it represents for you the origin of, or major influence on your politics?

So Anamaria, are you ready to start us out tonight?

- So when I think about this question, you know, of course I can't pinpoint one exact experience.

It has to, or at least what I think about is the experience of being raised.

And what I mean by that is that my parents, Juan and Yvonne they're from Columbia, South America.

Right now I'm 26 years old.

They immigrated here 28 years ago.

So when they made the decision to come to The United States in order to raise us, my brother and I were both born here in The United States, they made the commitment to put us into a Catholic school and to raise us with an ethic of working hard, with the ethic to be nice to others and to just be a positive person in society.

And that's context to say that I'm at a crossroads.

I was raised Colombian or Spanish my household but was attending a French-Canadian school and was living in with my social groups in an American society.

So I felt at a crossroad of like you know, you're half Colombian, half American like of two worlds, but not completely of one.

So that is all to say that what it seems like to me in terms of political leanings, it looks like at least the Democratic Party is a little bit more open to immigration and to immigrants in terms of diversifying the country and for their commitment to the workforce.

So to me, that's something that I feel like might be the origin of my political leanings.

- Well, similar to Anamaria, my background, I would consider myself a Roman Catholic raised in the suburbs, and what I at the time growing up thought was a very typical experience.

And with this upbringing, there was very much a sense of drive, of personal responsibility, of work ethic that I very much took intrinsically and drove me through much of my experiences as a young person.

I joined the military and shortly afterwards was diagnosed as diabetic.

And that was a very humbling experience for me.

It forced me to accept my own limitations and it began to lead towards a questioning of the sorts of things that the people around me of different experiences and perhaps different faiths, different classes, different cultures, different races, what it is that they were experiencing.

Because this was a very new thing for me.

I then went into become a history teacher.

And as I continued my career and attended seminars and went and got a master's in history, I developed a much more greater sense of empathy.

I felt things that I never once experienced or ideas and sensations about people and what they've gone through and just being oblivious and ignorant of different cultures and things.

And it was very much an eyeopening experience for me.

And I would say since then, it's really led me to try and be more inclusive or at least more understanding of the people who are around me.

And especially teaching in the inner city, of a teacher in Bridgeport, that has very much led me to the path of of knowing that people are struggling out there and I was blessed not to have gone through that.

And with that, I've really tried to read scripture every day.

I'm a very devout Catholic.

And in doing so, I found myself being much more socially liberal just on the understanding that people deserve their personal freedoms.

They deserve to be able to make decisions that will help them and their family.

And as a collective nation, we ought to do whatever we can to help those who are marginalized in our society.

- So I was also raised, well, I'm only 15 but I've been raised in the church.

And my family has always talked about being hardworking but also helping the people around me.

So that's really shaped my experience, I think.

There's not an exact point where I remember being more socially liberal but it's always been part of who I am.

I am, I would say a very sensitive person but that also makes me more sensitive to the people around me and their needs and everything that they're experiencing.

And since I've lived in the suburbs my entire life, I don't have the same experiences as other people.

And so I know that I'm privileged in where I sit and that I should do everything in my ability to help the other people in the world as much as I can.

And I think a lot of that goes back to empathy and just caring about other people around me.

And in my opinion, from what I've seen, it seems that people who are more socially liberal think more about empathy and the people around them than logically.

So that's how I've leaned for my years, based on what's going on around me and how I feel as to helping other people.

- Thanks so much Grace.

Thank you so much Erik and Anamaria.

That's a really great start for our conversation.

I look forward to us jumping into round two where we're gonna think a little bit about placing those values with the context of some of the issues that are pressing today.

- Hello everyone, my name is Hillary and I will be your facilitator for this dialogue.

First, let's take a moment to get to know each other before we head into the dialogue portion.

Using one breath, please share your first name, where you're calling in from and something that is giving you strength and grounding in these challenging times.

I will start.

So my name is Hillary.

I'm calling in from Point Claire Quebec, which is on the Western part of the Island of Montreal in Canada.

And something that's giving me strength and grounding in these challenging times would be, my husband and my two kids.

One of whom is five and one of whom is almost two.

So Carlos.

- Hi everyone, my name is Carlos I'm calling from New Haven, Connecticut.

And one of the things that's giving me strength through the challenging time is my fellow residents of New Haven who have been fighting against this COVID pandemic and doing what we can to honor those that we have lost.

- Hi, my name is Rashad.

I am Windsor resident.

I'm calling in from Windsor.

And something has kept me really grounded during this difficult time is my faith and the faith-based communities that have really outreached their hand and helped in this terrible time to first responders.

- Hi everyone, my name is Sujata.

I'm calling in from Trumbull, Connecticut.

And one thing that's kept me grounded in the pandemic especially, is my family, my friends, and my students.

- Thank you everyone.

So in this round, we're going to be moving beyond our individual experiences and values.

And considering them within the context of some of today's political issues.

Think about three political positions you take on important issues.

For example, gun control, the economy, the environment, immigration, taxes, etc.

What might be the common idea or value that guides your positions on them?

So at this point, we'll have 10 minutes to dialogue about our perspectives on these questions.

So might someone be willing to start us off.

I will keep time as we go.

- Well, I'll be fine with starting.

I think a large issue that I really find myself being on, what I consider the right spectrum, not the right as in wrong or right, but right versus left, is the economy.

I'm a big advocate of tax cuts that favor the middle, lower and high class across the board, believing in the idea that that will increase business growth and also increase revenue amongst Americans and job opportunities.

I'm a strict believer that America is an economy that is based off of businesses that help people make a living and make a way in this American society.

So it's very, very close to my heart knowing how important people can have time and understand how businesses influence day-to-day life whether it is just the normal variety you see at a store and versus the opportunities that may be accessible to people who want new business ventures.

But understanding that is extremely important to me in the way I view the world.

- I can go ahead and jump in with a couple of issues that are really fundamental to me.

Particularly right now, public financing.

So thinking about in Connecticut, the real value of our Citizens' Election Program.

Thinking about districts and redistricting right now, especially coming off of a census year.

And then also making voting more accessible.

And the thread, I think for me, that runs through all of these things is, like for Rashad, the economy, for me, it's making government accessible and allowing an opportunity, a real opportunity for people to engage with one another and with their representatives.

And for me, these are the core issues.

You know, we already do well in Connecticut with public financing and the Citizens' Election Program but thinking more carefully about, you know, how beneficial that could be, and then thinking about what fair districts look like and increasing voter access and making voting really a part of people's everyday experience - An issue that's very important to me in sort of the five partisan beliefs I don't believe that any person is illegal.

I'm open to the idea of looking at a more open-border type of immigration system in The United States.

both from my upbringing and...

The work I do represent so many residents in the City of New Haven who may be undocumented, or even if they're not undocumented are people of color and effects of these sorts of restricted immigration laws that are currently in place in this country and all over the world, actually.

- I'm glad you brought that up, Carlos, actually the topic of immigration, I mean.

Amongst other things, immigration, economy, military, these are kind of my bread and butter issues only because immigration, I'm a first-generation American and that is very close to my heart.

And the idea that America is still this ideal world for a lot of immigrants out there in the world.

So it's very critical in my opinion to help maintain that ideology amongst them as well as making a very good path for every immigrant who is seeking to come to this country to benefit from their idea of the American dream to come here.

So I've never been really a favor of strict border nor strict border security rules.

Only the necessary in my opinion is what can help achieve this protection that America so seeks.

And then also I think immigrants bring something so much needed I think, in this country.

Excuse me, not much.

But I really believe that if we have a way to make a very clear and accessible path, that will really help.

So I couldn't agree more with you, Carlos.

- For those of you who were thinking about multiple issues, one of the prompt questions was, can you think of a word or a phrase that possibly ties them together?

So Rashad, you just talked about military, economy and immigration.

And so if somebody asks you for kind of like what's the underlying thing that ties those together, the underlying belief?

What do you think that is, this underlying thing that ties your different beliefs together?

- I think the underlying belief is the freedom to be able to come to this country, the freedom to be able to have a small business or have a job that you love and want to use your money in the way you want.

The freedom to know that you can join our military, that you can join service and sacrifice from other Americans who live here or other immigrants who are seeking to come here to maintain that freedom.

I think that's just the underlying theme that I've always tried to maintain in every aspect of my life, respecting that.

And also ensuring that my ideology is akin to that.

- For me I think it's definitely about accessibility.

And maybe tying our three different issues together is really building community.

You know, and for me given the kind of divisiveness in our community today, the real core question is, how do we come to understand each other beyond our differences?

And, you know, in my own personal experience, again as a child of immigrants, I think having so many different experiences and understanding different values helps you expand that understanding, recognize that there are different ways of looking at, you know, perhaps the same issue.

And the question for me is always, how do we enable communities to come together to be more inclusive in that way where people are really understanding and connecting with one another?

And then of course, with their representatives, most importantly that we have a government that's really open and public and that dialogue, and that access to the representatives is always available and central to that experience of politics.

- For me, the sort of underlying value that underpins much of my political beliefs is a shared humanity.

And I think in the discussion we just had about immigration about how many of us in this group feel about immigration.

Things like abortion rights, things like affirmative action, anti-racism.

This all comes back to the fact that I really do believe in shared humanity ) that all of us regardless of our ethnicity, or where we're from.

- So I'm wondering if you all have found instances where that kind of underlying idea that you have that ties all these together have helped you have conversations with people who believe differently about you on an issue.

Have you been able to find common grounding in thinking about freedom or shared humanity or kind of building community and accessibility?

- I think I have in many circumstances.

I think it's very different amongst people my age in Connecticut especially.

I consider myself a very Republican conservative kind of person.

And when I have disagreements with people my age who consider themselves mostly liberal or democratic, it can be difficult.

It's sometimes volatile but I always managed somehow to emphasize through just understanding a perspective that came from somewhere that I didn't come from a way to empathize and find that common ground.

I just feel like empathy and being able to be humble in your position is always the first step to find that common ground.

An example is, just really briefly, I participated in Model UN which consists of high school students from across the world coming to debate world affairs issues replicating the United Nations.

And I've made some very important relationships with people who come from different places, who believe different things just on the basis of humbling and empathizing with their position, and my position.

And I think that's just the first step in how you do everything, but sometimes it can look as if it's almost impossible amongst very tribal people.

- I think spending time too engaging in local communities may be a way to get across that divide, you know.

I love being part of the Trumbull Rotary for example, 'cause we have so many people with different perspectives but with a shared purpose.

And that shared purpose is service to the community.

And I think that shared purpose of service to the community helps us overcome differences but also enables a kind of dialogue where people are able to share their views, have different opinions and be heard.

And I think that's really the problem today, is we're not listening to one another through our disagreement.

We're not finding a way to work through the disagreement.

Probably because we're living in more sort of segregated communities particularly digitally because of all the digital platforms that you know, social media is keeping us in groups where we sort of are with people who share the same perspective.

And so it's nice to try to be around groups of shared interests, but perhaps with people who have different perspectives.

'Cause I think you really do then learn from one another and being there physically in the community.

I know we can't do that now in the pandemic but whenever we can get back there.

You know, being together is really at the heart of creating that compassion and that empathy.

And I really look forward to the time when we can do that again.

- I think what I find difficult, I think about I guess I'll touch more on that when get on the difficulties and I think Rashad touched on it.

Is I find it difficult I think right now we are as polarized.

And I believe some of us, our beliefs are so far off, just fundamentally on what we believe is right and wrong.

And I found that it's difficult to bridge that divide many people with whom I find their beliefs are horrid.

And I think that whatever reason, many reasons horrid views have been allowed to be espoused and much more over the last several years.

But I do find the common ground difficult with many folks who are just as far as I believe like I said, are abhorrent and hateful and it's a challenge.

I live in a place in New Haven where most of us share, it's very monolithic political views that I agree with.

So I do admit, I find it difficult to interact politically, I should say with folks whose beliefs are so far removed from mine.

- Thank you everyone.

Well we're return to those issues a little bit later in the dialogue, but we are out of time for this round.

So we're going to move on to the next round.

- Hello everyone, my name is Diana Martinez and I'll be your facilitator for this dialogue.

First, let's take a moment to get to know each other before we head into this dialogue together.

- Hi, I'm Kiku.

I'm calling from Killingly, Connecticut.

And my family who I live with is giving me strength, my husband and my two sons who are four and six years old.

- Hi, I'm Claude calling from East Hartford, where I belong to a wife, a teen, and a toddler who keeps me going throughout every day.

- Hi, I'm Richard and I'm calling from New Hartford.

And something that helps keep me going in these difficult times is my belief, my knowledge that there are always silver linings even in tough times.

So I look for those silver linings.

- Thank you all so much.

We're now at the last of our dialogue rounds and here we'll have the opportunity to think about and explore some of the gray areas and tensions in our political ideas and affiliations.

Many people experience some dilemmas, mixed feelings or uncertainties with regard to their political beliefs.

When you think about your political beliefs or the political issues that are most meaningful to you, are there any dilemmas, value conflicts or tensions that you've wrestled with and that you'd be willing to share?

And what do you do to navigate these tensions?

- So I think the place where I struggle the most is around abortion because I feel like everybody should have a right to life.

But when it comes to abortion, sometimes there's a conflict between the woman's right to life and the child's right to life.

And I think similarly around gun control.

Like sometimes there's a conflict where everybody has rights, but who should have more rights in that moment.

And so that's where I struggle, is around when I feel like some value that I have might be hypocritical if I don't see all sides of the issue - All right, there's lots of issues that I struggle with.

Capital punishment for instance.

I believe that there are instances where capital punishment could be justified in really heinous crimes, but our criminal justice system is so rife with racism and other issues that there are just too many examples of people being wrongly accused.

And it's really heartbreaking to know that people have been put to death and that often that is based on racism.

is based on racism.

So I struggle with that.

Freedom of speech is another one.

I believe very strongly in frey in freedom of speech, but there are instances where it seems to harm other people.

And I struggle with balancing that one also.

se were, like so I think come very near and dear to my thoughts.

There's so many issues and we live in such a complex society that as we continue on and as you go through your daily life, there's bound to be a conflict with one person or the next.

People are sort of so divisive and I think we exist in sort of organizations and in spaces that are almost built to keep us separated that I struggle with sort of figuring out where my own independent thought is most relevant and where it makes the most sense and where different identities (indistinct) where I need to align or support a certain view or certain politics because those things are constantly at play and constantly pulling at you.

- Thank you.

I appreciate that perspective from all of you.

So what do you all do to navigate those tensions?

- I kind of accept that tension.

I generally don't expect that everything is going to make sense.

And I was talking with somebody recently who used the phrase 'mucking towards meaning.'

Very often groups will struggle with something and then they go through a process.

And I think mucking towards meaning is a good way to describe that.

I find myself mucking towards meaning in my own head sometimes.

I don't feel a need to resolve everything.

I do accept that some things just aren't going to be resolved and it's part of the journey, so to speak, to continue to work with it.

- For me, it's a careful balancing act of when to speak and when to be silent.

You know, I really want to advocate for those things that I feel strongly about, I feel passionate about.

And often there's times when I don't feel as passionate but doesn't mean I want to speak in the other direction.

So I ghastly utilize the strategy of just sort of going along with the flow.

And that creates another quadrant 'cause I don't know if that's sort of empowering the enemy or empowering some differential perspective that I don't agree with.

But unless I can really sort of speak and get behind it, my main influence is really just to stay out of the conversation and hopefully mind my business and hope it works out for the best.

- Yeah, I also kind of try to stay out unless I feel like there's something that I have to add to the conversation.

I notice that there's something not being said that needs to be said.

And if there's something that people are saying that makes me feel uncomfortable or makes me question something then I try to be quiet and listen and figure out whether that perspective has some validity for myself before I try to jump into the conversation and start saying a bunch of stuff that's going to offend somebody.

- Navigating some sense for yourself is getting harder to do, and I think is getting more polarized in a way that it's harder to navigate, or is that something that you're aligned, you're comfortable walking?

- Unfortunately, and I don't know if this is bad to say, but it's not getting more difficult.

It's getting easier because as things become more polarized and I know and I understand that I don't align with either side, my strategy of being silent is almost (mumbles) It works well.

I don't go there and I don't go there.

Unfortunately, it sort of tears at me a little bit on the side 'cause I feel like I'm not being as impactful and as involved as I should be.

But when I recognize that it's only sort of two parties that are controlling things or just very distinct perspective that are controlling things, it makes it easy to not be part of the conversation at all.

- I sometimes try and make a real effort to hear other points of view on that.

That helps me think through things, helps me get a little further down the road in terms of understanding what's going on in my own head and why I'm feeling something, why I'm believing something.

And sometimes by listening to other people, it changes what I'm thinking, but other times it sort of solidifies what my gut is telling me.

- I found it hard to find the opportunity to have conversations across opinion actually, because social media and just the workplaces that I've engaged with are very isolating.

So I am surrounded by a lot of people who already believe the same things that I do.

And it's hard to find the people who disagree and are also willing to talk to me about it.

So I think that's actually the bigger problem, is finding avenues to engage in the conversation in the first place.

to be somewhat cget to be somewhat canta somewhat cantankeroumewhat cantankerous and get to be the devil's advocate some bit in bringing up the other side.

Even if I don't believe it, I get compensated, I guess to sort of argue it being that I work with education space.

So I not only have to bring up the left side but I need to bring up the right side of every argument out there in order to get students to think about it, think it through and build their critical thinking skills.

It's great because of the fact that I can always find resources and pull things from either side, but also because I don't necessarily have to make my opinion known and I can sort of float out there in the middle.

I have to be knowledgeable about all of it.

- Thank you all so much.

We're moving onto the deliberative part of our conversation together as we think about strategies for building democracy.

Before we do, we do want to have ourselves re-introduce one another.

- Hi, my name is Adrienne.

I'm calling in from West Hartford.

My community at work there the work they're doing is keeping me grounded.

- Hello, my name is Kaylyn, I'm calling from Wethersfield, Connecticut.

And something that's keeping me grounded right now is actually going to therapy.

- Hi, Anamaria and I'm calling in from Vernon, Connecticut.

And one thing that's giving me strength during this time is the nice weather that is now happening this week.

- Wonderful!

Thank you.

And thank you all for making it t We've had a chance to share d a chance to share about our political biographies, some of our founding values, and then some of the tensions and dilemmas we're facing.

At this point in the dialogue, we want to spend a little time to talk about how we might work as individuals and together as a community to strengthen our democracy.

- When I think about the barriers, I think, you know, the last four years has caused us to have a distrust in one another, our neighbors, our loved ones, the system, the justice system and our leadership from local to a national level.

I also think the inconsistency in our leadership and in each party, the constant battles, the impasses don't garner much faith from us as lay-citizens who are looking to them as a moral compass.

So that's what traditionally we have looked at our leadership as.

And I think, you know, on a personal level, the whistle blowing from the past administration and followers and the microaggressions that have shown up more frequently in our everyday spaces, woul is hugely about empathy, right?

Because this is more than just politics.

These are people's lives that we're talking about.

We all live here and we're all connected.

And people treat politics like it's a sports game and it's really like things impact the way that we are brought up.

Healthcare, right?

Access to education.

And it's like, when we separate ourselves, we don't see each other as people anymore.

We need to seek to understand, to educate, to learn from one another.

And it seems that right now, that's not happening.

We're not seeing each other as equals.

We're seeing each other as opponents, and that shouldn't be the case.

We need to seek to help each other And to really be there for one another because this isn't a game, right?

This is serious.

We all live here.

And this is for the future of not only us but other generations, and it can't be taken lightly.

We need to go back to the fundamentals and see why are some people not empathetic to all of us?

Why is there a lack of empathy in the system that therefore creates ripples to injustice and difference and so on?

- So when I think about the barriers at least right now in our democracy, the first thing I think of is the financial interests and how our priorities are when it comes to financials.

Just to give a quick example that's floating around on social media, there is a, apparently going to be a space hotel being built in space and like 2020-something.

And so some of the comments from just people on there, it's just like, oh, we have money for this but we don't have money to feed our people, to offer shelter, offer healthcare, all of those things.

And that is in social media right now.

So one being financial interests.

Two is individualism in the sense of, or giving a more concrete example in regards to COVID-19, other countries that have more so of a collective culture had their numbers go down.

And so I think that individualism as part of our community standard or how we're brought up is problematic when it comes to democracy and shared responsibility.

Number three is this in-group out-group type bias in which we kind of victimize and kind of see the other side as static and never changing and just not having the grace for another individual being as a growing person, a learning person, learning as we go every single day type of person.

And that leads to my last point.

It seems as though each side is trying to evangelize the other.

Being more so that like we have the truth and one side has the truth versus the other side not having the truth.

And we're missing out on critical dialogue that offers active listening and understanding.

And we're missing that kind of human piece in conversation.

- Excellent!

Thank you so much Anamaria.

Thank you all.

We get barriers obviously but now's our chance to talk about positive step forward.

And so if someone has a specific idea to offer, please do so and then others jump in with your own ideas for how we can move forward with a more robust, responsive democracy.

where you bring a community together across the spectrum, generationally, racially, ethnically, genders to have these discussions that affect every single one of us, no matter where we're coming from so that we can find some sort of compromise.

As Kaylyn and Anamaria said, we're each human and we think in these individual ways, individualistic ways and it's time to sit down and listen, reflect and try to come up with some common solutions and goals in order to further the betterment of our future.

Like I said, and actually sitting down next to someone that you normally wouldn't sit next to and actually having a real honest conversation without judgment or distrust.

- Thank you.

Anamaria, I saw you were also interested.

What do you think?

More dialogues or another idea?

- Right, so jumping off that a little bit more, so right now I'm in a graduate program in school psychology right now.

And I think an emphasis on social-emotional learning like I discussed a little bit before in terms of the human person.

I feel like people are too quick to think that an individual who does like one thing is the totality of that one thing that they may have done.

But instead we should engage in active listening or teach active listening and social-emotional curriculum to students in the education system so that we are dialoguing.

Yes.

Yes, dialogue too.

But then also given that fact of just like when you encounter another person from different perspective how do you engage in that person?

What is the purpose of that conversation?

Is it to evangelize or is it to seek out another person's perspective?

But also partnership or kind of share that commonality, that human commonality, share that compassion in that conversation.

And I teach a human rights service learning class and the students we've been talking about like it starts with one person.

And when we think about these things in a grand scale, it can be very overwhelming.

But it's very easy to start with you and it's very easy to start locally.

And then to my last point, it's just that teaching also in the schools, the active citizenship component that you can make a difference.

That you can make a difference not just in your interpersonal interactions on an individual level but also in your local community.

You can run for office.

We need more people running for offices and making that impact in that space.

because we are not multiple different countries.

We all are here and we're all part of the main and therefore equally valuable, right?

And so we need to rebuild that trusto rebuild that trust between us.

We're not here to dehumanize one another for having a view.

We're here to learn from one another.

And through that, and by that, having discussions, teaching it in schools.

If schools do not teach kids how to have these discussions, how to be civically involved and how to take action, in the future, that's just going to leave to certain people who had access to education having all the power, and therefore another divide.

So we need to make sure that money is spent to everyone having equal access to things.

In my school, we do teach things about ethos, lathos, pathos, things like that.

We talk about the emotional effects of the things that we are dealing with.

We are a very emotionally involved school and civilly involved school.

We are there to not only take action, but to learn.

Because we need to be active in our communities because we are our communities.

Where we come from is a huge part of that and we need to share it with other people and build upon it because diversity is what makes things beautiful.

And so when there's a lack of diversity and singling people out and making them one thing, because of one view, that's the opposite of where we're trying to go.

We need to make sure that we are seeing everyone eye to eye, having these discussions, having these meetings, teaching it and making sure that it's accessible to everyone so that everyone can have a chance to do this.

- Wonderful!

Thank you so much, Kaylyn.

Thank you so much, Adrienne.

Thank you so much Anamaria.

I think these are powerful starting points for us as we do look forward to coming together, to coming out of these boxes, to be rejoining ourselves in public spaces.

So I thank you for joining with me tonight in this this conversation.

We're going to rejoin the larger group now, report out on the conversations that were happening in the other small breakout groups and leave us with a little sense of how we can move forward.

So thank you again, and I will see you in the larger group.

Welcome back.

We had a wonderful conversation in our breakout rooms.

Really powerful voices and experiences, and I'd really love to share what we learned about the possible barriers and possible pathways to building a more robust democracy.

So I'd like to hear what went on in all of your breakout rooms.

Hilary, why don't we start with you - So in our group our conversation really revolved around how partisan rhetoric from people in higher positions in government, in public spaces, is not reflective of the individuals and the community that they serve.

And that this is a big barrier to having a democracy that is not polarized and where people aren't angry.

And so for us, the major concrete step we could take is to make it easier for people to vote.

And also to encourage participation in local elections, which will get you to go out and know your town and get to talk to your people.

And we talked about how this is particularly easy to do in Connecticut where it's possible to walk your entire district and where there are programs like Citizens' Election Program and Democracy Fund, which provide funding to help ordinary citizens run for office.

So getting to know your community people better is a major way to overcome those barriers.

- Wonderful!

- So our group had a - So our group had a really dynamic conversation around how some of the things that have made our lives easier in terms of technology like social media, cable TV, and online shopping have also made it so that we all don't have to associate with other folks as often as we would have otherwise especially not folks who we don't agree with.

We have very isolated bubbles.

Our team also talked about how passion to the point of outrage scares folks and who want to contribute either because they don't feel safe doing so or because anger shuts down the possibility for a dialogue.

Folks in our group mentioned that process is a slave to the people so that we're often making decisions based on our own inner circle and centering those in our immediate bubble instead of making decisions that are community-focused.

We've forgotten how to listen to each other, appreciation of differences are at an all time low.

And we've also sort of catapulted figureheads who promote intolerance and have set a tone that's a little anti-democratic.

And in terms of action steps, folks in our group very much agreed that we should reconnect government to the individual rather than to party so that it doesn't channel power away from people and it polarize folks in two factions that actually appreciates the nuances of the political spectrum.

That we focus on civic engagement, work and community engagement work and encourage dialogue across political spectrums.

And that we create more informal ways of having conversations more naturally so that we're building bonds over things that are not political, like shared interests and then build the sort of trust necessary to have more charged political conversations with it in a caring environment.

- So we had a really rich conversation in our breakout group as well.

And a number of the things that have already been shared out by Hilary and Diana were things that came out of our breakout room as well.

And here are some of the other things that came out.

In terms of the barriers, there was real concern about the role of money in politics.

And that's both in sort of the political process itself but also kind of more broadly socially and the ways in which some of the folks in our group were concerned about a single money and care for profit margins sometimes can override interest in the wellbeing of the collective, and the ways in which individuals can get lost in that.

And I think connected to something from Hilary's group, there was concern about how few people actually run for office and the concern about how campaigns can be so intimidating.

And beyond that, there was concern about polarization and dehumanization and the way in which the two party system and the winner take all aspect of a binary system really can help increase that polarization and that dehumanization.

And there was worry about the lack of courage to reveal opinions or perspectives that may lie outside of the group with whom you normally affiliate.

And then also about the 24-hour news cycle and how it also feeds into polarization as opposed to serving a role for educating.

So in terms of action steps, one of the things that people were really interested in is the process of understanding people's humanity and their complexity.

And one of the ways to do that is to have more dialogue.

And I think Diana's group was speaking to that as well.

But not only the action of doing it, but having spaces in which we can talk across difference and learn about our different perspectives.

As you can imagine, there was interest in more people running for office and serving in office.

And there's also an educational concern our dialogue participants revealed, which is a thought that there should be greater civic education and civic literacy.

A really interesting specific idea is a tax break incentive for doing charity work as opposed simply to charitable giving.

And then I think finally this idea of moving beyond the two party binary and seeking ways for more proportional representation.

I think that was a decent sum for some of the great ideas that came out in our breakout room.

- Terrific!

Thank you, Brendan.

And I'll say, you know, I've heard a lot of things from you all that we talked about in our group as well.

And I think the kind of concern about growing distrust and disconnection between our leaders and the broad citizen tree.

That the larger divisions that are fed by the media environment but also our inability to see each other in our fullness, in our diversity and to respect one another in those ways.

There was real concern in our group about the way in which politics is regarded as a sport and you simply root for your side to win and you root for the other side to win.

This lack of connection, this insistence on my group all the way, in-group bias was brought up as a real concern for not only the way our politics work but increasingly our communities as a whole.

I think many of our ideas for how we move beyond this are similar to what we heard now.

I think that the theme of dialogue you'll be unsurprised to learn, was something that that people were excited about.

The chance to talk to one another, not just about the ways in which we disagree, but about some of the things we share.

And that's going to enable us to understand one another across those differences.

And it got framed in terms of active listening as a concrete skill that needs to be fostered and developed among young people, but among adults as well.

That was connected with, in our group the notion of active citizenship.

So both in terms of the willingness to engage directly in running for political office per se but also the kinds of civic engagement community work that makes our communities run more generally.

And of course, across this, there was a large theme about the importance of education as well.

And I think that's true in the kind of civic space, Brendan, as you said.

But there was also an interest in social-emotional learning.

Making us all more familiar with ourselves so that we can out across those differences, respect them, find the beauty in diversity as one of our participants said and make sure that's the root of our strength not an attempt to make us all fit the same mold.

So it sounds like we had a lot of great ideas about moving past this and now I want to send it over to Brendan for some takeaways for the evening.

- Thanks so much, Glenn.

One of the takeaways from today's conversation we hope is that we can all think about how we talk about matters of politics and our values.

And to remember that we can do so in ways that move beyond polarization and beyond winners and losers.

There are certainly times for that but not every time is a time for that.

And it is difficult to talk about politics.

It's difficult to talk about our values and generally it is difficult to encounter people with different viewpoints or to have conversations around divisive issues.

And so, as we think about the dialogue here's some tips to help when we were doing so outside the structure of a dialogue like today's event.

One, just actively listen and also remember to reflect.

Reflecting, thinking a little bit before we enter into a conversation around a question that's controversial or divisive can be really powerful tool for us.

And in doing so, we can think that instead of looking to change the other person's opinion, we can try to find understanding and recognition of different perspectives, right?

Again, we don't have to take that perspective but to try to understand the perspective of the person with whom we're speaking.

And in doing so, it's really helpful to focus on the substance of the matter at hand, rather than on the person or their personal qualities.

And in doing so, try to achieve some common grounding.

And we can find that common grounding by contributing to the conversation, by acknowledging the different perspective in that dialogue and to clarifying if our positions have come out confused or have been misunderstood.

And like any difficult process, the secret to this is practice, practice, practice.

- Right, yeah.

Practice indeed makes perfect in this.

So thank you, Brendan.

I've really appreciated the opportunity to engage with you tonight and with all of our participants.

I'm really also thankful to our amazing partners who made this happen.

Connecticut Public, of course thank you so much.

Generous funding by Connecticut Humanities.

And then partnership with our collaborators, Everyday Democracy and Essential Partners.

A special thank you to Katie Haydn of Essential Partners who's help crafting the questions that you heard tonight was extraordinarily helpful in getting us to where we are.

But I especially want to thank our participants.

You were brave to come out in this fishbowl format to share your views and engage in that hard work of thinking and sharing across difference.

My hope is that it may have inspired some out there who are watching us to engage in these conversations.

I would encourage you to visit us @dodd.uconn.edu.

Look for the democracy and community resources, download them and see if you can host a dialogue like this in your own community.

We'd love to hear from you and we believe that going forward, this is going to help us build a stronger, more robust democracy throughout our state.

Thank you so much, and we'll see you soon.