Reconnecting with our Better Angels

There is great concern among Americans that we have lost the ability to talk to one another across the current partisan political divide. While this phenomenon didn’t start with the 2016 presidential election, that contest certainly served to draw into stark relief the scale of the issue that we face, with each side coming more and more to believe that those with whom they disagree are not just misguided and uninformed, but even perhaps evil. 

We have increasingly placed ourselves within segregated bubbles, consuming different media that draw upon different sets of facts, not just by choice, but now due to the vagaries of marketing tactics that choose to serve us only information that will reinforce our existing views. 

Fortunately there are many organizations emerging around the country that agree on a basic principle: if we once again commit to talking with one another, rather than just at or about one another, we’ll realize that we share much more in common than we thought, and that our basic values and hopes are largely similar, regardless of the media narrative that is being fed to us. 

One of those groups is called Better Angels, and its name refers to Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, in which he proclaimed, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.” He implored us to allow “the mystic chords of memory” to be touched “by the better angels of our nature.”

On Saturday, July 20th, Better Angels will be hosting a Red-Blue Workshop in downtown Santa Barbara that brings members of each group together to have a conversation that helps us to understand one another a little better. The goal will not be to convince anyone to change their mind, but to gain a deeper understanding of what drives each of us, and what experiences have helped to form our viewpoints.

The workshop will be moderated by former Santa Barbaran Randy Lioz, who serves as the Southern California state coordinator for Better Angels, and Matthew J. Long, a Santa Barbara attorney and mediator. There are still a few spots available to participate, but they also welcome anyone who would just like to observe. You can reach out to the event organizers for information at the email addresses below.