SPEAKING OF CIVILITY I love that there is an active effort to bring civility back to our lives and political discussions. Today at 2:30 I've got Lori Leander from Reclaiming Civility and Sandra Brownrigg from Braver Angels Southern Front Range Alliance on to talk about what their organization is trying to do to elevate the dialogue in our communities again. They've got an event coming up called "Civility on the International Space Station with Astronaut Jim Dutton" and you can go. To find out more and reserve your seat, click here. Find out more about Braver Angels by clicking here!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I realize I'm a talk show host and everybody's like
you're a part of the problem.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
But I'm actually.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Mostly nice, and I try to keep our discussions on
policy not personal right, and I try to talk about
the issues rather than the people, and I'm very purposeful
about that, and sometimes I'm better than others. I'm certainly
not perfect, and it's always a work in progress. But
(00:24):
my guests right now are working within two different organizations
with a similar aligned goal, and the first one that
I want to talk to. We've got Lori Leander from
Braver Angels first of all, and Sandra Brownrigg from Restoring Civility.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
But we're going to start with Lori because Lourie Braver.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Angels came onto my radar pretty quickly after it was created,
and I've had somebody on from braver Angels a while ago.
But why don't you tell my audience, who might not
have heard of braver Angels, what exactly it is and
what you guys do.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Sandra, do you want to go ahead? Oh?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Sorry?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I did you back?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Backers, Sorry, Sandra, I tell you it's the vacation brain.
It's Jack. That's my excuse. Sandra brownrig is with Braver Angels.
Let's try that again. Go ahead, Sandra, all.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Right, yeah, you I think you had. I'm gonna butcher
the name. But Karen O'Connor on in twenty nineteen from
Braver Angels. We started in twenty sixteen after President Trump
was elected because we wanted to bridge the divide and
strengthen our constitutional republic. And I got involved in twenty
(01:35):
twenty two because I was volunteering within the school district
in Douglas County and the political polarity was causing harm
to the schools, to the students, to the teachers. So
I look for an organization that could help with that
and I found Braver Angels.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Tell me, just tell me a.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Little bit about what the mission of braver Angels is,
because it's pretty simple.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
It's the largest grassroots organization in the nation dedicated to
bridging the divide and strengthening the constitutional Republic. So we
heal the divide. That's what we do. We bring people
together to have scratchy conversations on issues like you said,
versus assuming that people should stay in their echo chambers
and mindlessly agree with other people who they think think
(02:19):
like them. So we bring people in to bridge that
divide and have those conversations. So we do it through debates,
We do it through workshops, we do it through book
clubs and film screenings, whatever it takes to build that
connection and remind people that we have more commonality than
we do differences. And when we do have differences, how
do we disagree?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I want to ask a little bit of a follow up,
because everyone that I know who has been involved with
Braver Angels has definitely been a right leaner. Do you
have the same level of participation from people on the left.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I know that there are.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
People on the left who want to have a higher
level of dialogue, who have the same feelings about it
that we have. Are you able to bring them into
the fold for these events so we can truly that process.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Actually, yes, the up until the twenty twenty four elections,
we had many more people who leaned left we'd call
them blues than we did reds. Especially in Colorado, there
was kind of an intentional desire to pull back from
reaching across the aisle, and the Blues were leaning in
(03:24):
partly because I think they thought they were going to
win the election, and they really were trying to heal
that divide, but then the election disrupted that and now
we're seeing people on each side come back in. The
Blues retracted for a while, but they're coming back in.
So at our event over the weekend, we had a
balanced group of reds and blues discussing how skills to
(03:45):
families and politics, and then we had a debate on gender,
id and schools, and it was fascinating to see people
come together and have those discussions.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's very encouraging. That makes me very very happy because
I don't think, I know for a fact, there are
a lot of people on the left who are just
as tired of the vitriol and nastiness. Unfortunately, the nastiest
on the left and the right are the ones that
suck up all the oxygen on social media and in
other places. So it gives the impression that there are
(04:16):
everybody's on the same level of nasty, when I actually
think a much larger section of people are like, Okay,
we should be able to have a discussion and not
you know, call the other person evil or or you know,
the worst thing ever. So I'm actually super pleased to
hear that, Sandra, that you guys have seen that rebound.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Let me go to Lori.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Lori Leander is a founder. Let me see if I
can get this right of reclaiming civilitation, not giving you
the wrong organization.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, tell me, I'm the co founder.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I have that. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I have a business partner named Lisa Brandt who couldn't
be with us today. But it's interesting you're talking about
the loudest voices on either end, and we're hearing a
lot about this exhausted majority in the middle, people who
hired the incability and don't want to just complain.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They want to do something.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
People who don't want to be afraid to bring their
authentic opinions to the table for fear of losing relationship
or repercussions in the workplace. And we're here to link
arms with those people and teach them the skills to
help them develop warm connection, to how fruitful dialogue over difference,
and even to de escalate conflict. And those skills range
(05:29):
anywhere from emotional intelligence to the power of basic manners
like saying please and thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I will tell you I My wonderful friend Deborah Flora
and her husband and so many other wonderful people have
created an organization very Douglas County specific. Right, it's called
Douglas County Citizenry, same thing that you guys are trying
to do. But the only reason I bring it up
now is we went I got to moderate a conversation
about this home rule initiative, and what I found striking
(05:59):
was that there was oddviously people in the audience that
are on the left, but they were able to get
their questions answered. And aside from some snide commentary from
one of the commissioners that I thought was uncalled for, it.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Was a very everybody was open.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Everybody just wanted to learn right, They wanted to find
out more, And it just really underscored for me what
both of you ladies probably know far better. And there
is this first there's this hunger to be able to
have those conversations without worrying about getting socked in the nose,
you know, I mean rather rhetorically or actually so now, Laurie,
(06:35):
is your organization locally because I know Braver Angels is nationwide?
So is your organization local or is it also nationwide?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, we actually said we are launching on July twenth.
We're helping our launch event here where we're having an
astronaut speak on stability in the space station, and we
really want to reach out to our local community. But
we're part of a nationwide initiative called jex Stivility, and
we were actually part of planning two nationwide conferences. So
(07:06):
all those events can be found on our website for
people who are interested.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Now let me ask this question.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And I don't know if your better positioned, Sandra, or
if you can address this LORI. It's easy to be
magnanimous when you've just won, right, it's easy to say
we need to elevate the dialogue when your team is
in charge. Did you find a consistent number of people
on the right, And Sandra, gus will direct this question
to you during the Biden administration when they were not
(07:35):
in charge, when it was far more tempting to drop
back into those sort of, you know, vitriolic positions. And
I'm wondering because you said there was a little bit
of a pullback after the election. Is that a natural
ebb and flow? Do you think or can we get
to a point that everybody, regardless of who's in charge,
is pursuing these same goals.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Well, I think I'll answer that tangentially US. Forty nine
percent of the citizenry in Colorado is unaffiliated. And so
the interesting phenomenon that I've seen for our Braver Angels
initiatives is that those unaffiliated come to them because they're nonpartisan.
(08:17):
So we're having a debate on gun laws in July
and a debate on religion in August, and they know
that's nonpartisan, so they'll come to the event. They'll hear
the speakers who may be partisan, but you have all
of the people in the room. So it's for the
left and the right. It is about who's in charge
(08:37):
as far as the willingness to engage. But it should
be a math problem that everybody wants to talk to
those people who are not speaking up, not being heard,
to find out what they think. And I don't think
anybody is just fully on board with whatever platform a
party has put out there. We all have radical ideas.
(08:57):
We might be what do you call yourself a concerned libreservative.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I got myself a liberservative for the last time I
said I'm a libertarian. But there are certain things where
I have gotten more conservative over the years after seeing
the outcome of some of the truly libertarian positions I
have definitely shifted on some of my positions, but I
think I think there's a lot more people like me
(09:21):
right who may be a liberal liberal know so then
are just kind of a little bit squishy depending on
which issue you're talking about right.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And that's kind of where I've landed, is that we
use left and right so that we can actually categorize
our stereotype people who we think are different from us right.
And so if you suspend that, you simply come in
and say, well, what do you think about us and such?
Then you find you find alignment almost immediately, and from
there you can proceed to how you differ. So I've
(09:54):
got something on my Facebook page, my personal page, about
what happened about the bombing, and I've got people from
all different political perspectives on there and they're having a conversation.
And I look at that and I think, Okay, we
need more of that, please, because it's civil. It's very definite,
but it's still very civil.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Laurie, tell me about your event coming up. You've got
an astronaut coming to talk about civility. And when I
first saw this, I was like, it didn't even occur
to me that if you're going to be on the
space station for six months, you better be able to
get along with everybody because talk about close quarters.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
How did you get this guy right?
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Well, it's someone that we know from the community, and
he was on the International Space Station and had this
you know, spoiler alert. He had this amazing interaction with
the Russians over coffee, and so he tells his story,
and the point is that as human beings, we have
(10:52):
more in common than in contrast. You know, one of
our heroes is a man named Daryl Davis. He's a
black man who made friends with a Grand Wizard of
the Ku Klux Klan and through that friendship.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
The Grand Wizard gave up his position.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
To date, Darryl has collected over two hundred robes, medallions,
and hoods of people who have changed their mind because
of friendship. So we really believe that it all starts
with relationship. And no matter what side of the aisle
you're on, people are craving that.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
You know, I understand your question.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
For Sandra, there could be.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
A ping, you know, based on who's in charge, but
I think it's just a general We're tired of this.
Good people who really want to be civil. They want
to treat people respectfully. So we're starting to see the
needle shift and there's kind of momentum going, kind of
a movement towards back towards We call it reclaiming civility
(11:52):
because there's been evan flow all through history from the
very beginning. We want to reclaim that civility that wants
was there.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I think people are just exhausted, you know, it is.
I have one of my dear friends is a left
wing Democrat, and we've been friends since childhood. And when
I say dear friends, like she's my ride or die
on many many issues, right, But we have always been
able to have respectful conversations about politics because we have
(12:23):
a foundation of genuine love for each other, right, I mean,
there's a deep and abiding love there. But at the
same time, the way she consumes politics and news, it
is perpetually upsetting to her. And I think she's representative
of a lot of people who are every day it's whiplash,
it's every day.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
What's happening?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Now?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Every day? What do I have to worry about?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And I love the fact that you are just focusing
on the human connections because that those underpinnings. That human
connection that I have with her is the thing that
has kept our friendship going for fifty years now, because
we're first and foremost, we are deep and abiding friends.
And I love to think that we're going to get
back to a point where you're going to be able
(13:06):
to disagree with a family member or disagree with a
friend without feeling like you have to excommunicate them out
of your life, which I When I hear of people
being removed from other people's lives because of politics, I
find that heartbreaking because there's nothing more hollow than politics
as a reason to remove someone from your life. It
really is in my view anyway. So I'll let you guys, Sandra,
(13:27):
You guys have some events coming up. I did put
a link to both websites on the blog today. So
can people join? How do they join your organization? Sandra,
I'll start with you, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
You can join Braver Angels simply by going to braver
Angels dot org. It's twelve dollars a year and we
offer free workshops, free debates, etc. Our local alliance is
the Colorado Southern Front Range Alliance, which is based out
of Douglas County, but it goes all the way down
to puebloam Beyond. We partnered with Reclaiming Civility to host
(14:02):
two more events. We'll have one on the third Saturday
of July. We'll have Skills for Disagreeing Better workshop in
the morning from nine to noon in Colorado Springs, and
then we'll have a debate where the stopic is Colorado's
gun laws unfairly in French on personal freedoms for two hours.
We are looking for speakers pro and con whether those
(14:24):
gun rights in French gun control laws in French. And
then on August sixteenth, we will have an apolitical Skills
workshop where we drill down on lap skills, which is listening, acknowledge,
pivot and perspective. And in the afternoon the debate is
the First Amendment correctly prioritizes freedom of religion over freedom
(14:45):
from religion. And again we are looking for speakers. It's
a community debate, so we start with four speakers and
then everybody can engage. So you can find that on
cos turnewurl dot com, slash Civil twenty five or on
Reclaiming Civility dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
All right, and Laurie, how can people do in reclaiming
civility right, so just go to www.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Dot Reclaiming civility dot com.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
You can also register for.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
The Braver Angels events their sability on the space station.
The registration link is there on July tenth, or if
you're interested, if you have a small business or you're
a manager, or a nonprofit or any kind of group
that you would like us to come and give a workshop,
you can reach.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Out to us that way.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Laurie Leander and Sarah excuse me, Sandra Brown Red, thank
you so much for making time and thank you for.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
What you're doing. I wish you all the success in
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And please let me know if I can support your
organizations in the future. By just letting people know what's
coming up, I think my audience would very much enjoy those.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Thank you man.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Thank you
I realize I'm a talk show host and everybody's like
you're a part of the problem.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
But I'm actually.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Mostly nice, and I try to keep our discussions on
policy not personal right, and I try to talk about
the issues rather than the people, and I'm very purposeful
about that, and sometimes I'm better than others. I'm certainly
not perfect, and it's always a work in progress. But
(00:24):
my guests right now are working within two different organizations
with a similar aligned goal, and the first one that
I want to talk to. We've got Lori Leander from
Braver Angels first of all, and Sandra Brownrigg from Restoring Civility.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
But we're going to start with Lori because Lourie Braver.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Angels came onto my radar pretty quickly after it was created,
and I've had somebody on from braver Angels a while ago.
But why don't you tell my audience, who might not
have heard of braver Angels, what exactly it is and
what you guys do.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Sandra, do you want to go ahead? Oh?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Sorry?
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I did you back?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Backers, Sorry, Sandra, I tell you it's the vacation brain.
It's Jack. That's my excuse. Sandra brownrig is with Braver Angels.
Let's try that again. Go ahead, Sandra, all.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Right, yeah, you I think you had. I'm gonna butcher
the name. But Karen O'Connor on in twenty nineteen from
Braver Angels. We started in twenty sixteen after President Trump
was elected because we wanted to bridge the divide and
strengthen our constitutional republic. And I got involved in twenty
(01:35):
twenty two because I was volunteering within the school district
in Douglas County and the political polarity was causing harm
to the schools, to the students, to the teachers. So
I look for an organization that could help with that
and I found Braver Angels.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Tell me, just tell me a.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Little bit about what the mission of braver Angels is,
because it's pretty simple.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
It's the largest grassroots organization in the nation dedicated to
bridging the divide and strengthening the constitutional Republic. So we
heal the divide. That's what we do. We bring people
together to have scratchy conversations on issues like you said,
versus assuming that people should stay in their echo chambers
and mindlessly agree with other people who they think think
(02:19):
like them. So we bring people in to bridge that
divide and have those conversations. So we do it through debates,
We do it through workshops, we do it through book
clubs and film screenings, whatever it takes to build that
connection and remind people that we have more commonality than
we do differences. And when we do have differences, how
do we disagree?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I want to ask a little bit of a follow up,
because everyone that I know who has been involved with
Braver Angels has definitely been a right leaner. Do you
have the same level of participation from people on the left.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I know that there are.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
People on the left who want to have a higher
level of dialogue, who have the same feelings about it
that we have. Are you able to bring them into
the fold for these events so we can truly that process.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Actually, yes, the up until the twenty twenty four elections,
we had many more people who leaned left we'd call
them blues than we did reds. Especially in Colorado, there
was kind of an intentional desire to pull back from
reaching across the aisle, and the Blues were leaning in
(03:24):
partly because I think they thought they were going to
win the election, and they really were trying to heal
that divide, but then the election disrupted that and now
we're seeing people on each side come back in. The
Blues retracted for a while, but they're coming back in.
So at our event over the weekend, we had a
balanced group of reds and blues discussing how skills to
(03:45):
families and politics, and then we had a debate on gender,
id and schools, and it was fascinating to see people
come together and have those discussions.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
That's very encouraging. That makes me very very happy because
I don't think, I know for a fact, there are
a lot of people on the left who are just
as tired of the vitriol and nastiness. Unfortunately, the nastiest
on the left and the right are the ones that
suck up all the oxygen on social media and in
other places. So it gives the impression that there are
(04:16):
everybody's on the same level of nasty, when I actually
think a much larger section of people are like, Okay,
we should be able to have a discussion and not
you know, call the other person evil or or you know,
the worst thing ever. So I'm actually super pleased to
hear that, Sandra, that you guys have seen that rebound.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Let me go to Lori.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Lori Leander is a founder. Let me see if I
can get this right of reclaiming civilitation, not giving you
the wrong organization.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yeah, tell me, I'm the co founder.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
I have that. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I have a business partner named Lisa Brandt who couldn't
be with us today. But it's interesting you're talking about
the loudest voices on either end, and we're hearing a
lot about this exhausted majority in the middle, people who
hired the incability and don't want to just complain.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
They want to do something.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
People who don't want to be afraid to bring their
authentic opinions to the table for fear of losing relationship
or repercussions in the workplace. And we're here to link
arms with those people and teach them the skills to
help them develop warm connection, to how fruitful dialogue over difference,
and even to de escalate conflict. And those skills range
(05:29):
anywhere from emotional intelligence to the power of basic manners
like saying please and thank you.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I will tell you I My wonderful friend Deborah Flora
and her husband and so many other wonderful people have
created an organization very Douglas County specific. Right, it's called
Douglas County Citizenry, same thing that you guys are trying
to do. But the only reason I bring it up
now is we went I got to moderate a conversation
about this home rule initiative, and what I found striking
(05:59):
was that there was oddviously people in the audience that
are on the left, but they were able to get
their questions answered. And aside from some snide commentary from
one of the commissioners that I thought was uncalled for, it.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Was a very everybody was open.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Everybody just wanted to learn right, They wanted to find
out more, And it just really underscored for me what
both of you ladies probably know far better. And there
is this first there's this hunger to be able to
have those conversations without worrying about getting socked in the nose,
you know, I mean rather rhetorically or actually so now, Laurie,
(06:35):
is your organization locally because I know Braver Angels is nationwide?
So is your organization local or is it also nationwide?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, we actually said we are launching on July twenth.
We're helping our launch event here where we're having an
astronaut speak on stability in the space station, and we
really want to reach out to our local community. But
we're part of a nationwide initiative called jex Stivility, and
we were actually part of planning two nationwide conferences. So
(07:06):
all those events can be found on our website for
people who are interested.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Now let me ask this question.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And I don't know if your better positioned, Sandra, or
if you can address this LORI. It's easy to be
magnanimous when you've just won, right, it's easy to say
we need to elevate the dialogue when your team is
in charge. Did you find a consistent number of people
on the right, And Sandra, gus will direct this question
to you during the Biden administration when they were not
(07:35):
in charge, when it was far more tempting to drop
back into those sort of, you know, vitriolic positions. And
I'm wondering because you said there was a little bit
of a pullback after the election. Is that a natural
ebb and flow? Do you think or can we get
to a point that everybody, regardless of who's in charge,
is pursuing these same goals.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Well, I think I'll answer that tangentially US. Forty nine
percent of the citizenry in Colorado is unaffiliated. And so
the interesting phenomenon that I've seen for our Braver Angels
initiatives is that those unaffiliated come to them because they're nonpartisan.
(08:17):
So we're having a debate on gun laws in July
and a debate on religion in August, and they know
that's nonpartisan, so they'll come to the event. They'll hear
the speakers who may be partisan, but you have all
of the people in the room. So it's for the
left and the right. It is about who's in charge
(08:37):
as far as the willingness to engage. But it should
be a math problem that everybody wants to talk to
those people who are not speaking up, not being heard,
to find out what they think. And I don't think
anybody is just fully on board with whatever platform a
party has put out there. We all have radical ideas.
(08:57):
We might be what do you call yourself a concerned libreservative.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
I got myself a liberservative for the last time I
said I'm a libertarian. But there are certain things where
I have gotten more conservative over the years after seeing
the outcome of some of the truly libertarian positions I
have definitely shifted on some of my positions, but I
think I think there's a lot more people like me
(09:21):
right who may be a liberal liberal know so then
are just kind of a little bit squishy depending on
which issue you're talking about right.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And that's kind of where I've landed, is that we
use left and right so that we can actually categorize
our stereotype people who we think are different from us right.
And so if you suspend that, you simply come in
and say, well, what do you think about us and such?
Then you find you find alignment almost immediately, and from
there you can proceed to how you differ. So I've
(09:54):
got something on my Facebook page, my personal page, about
what happened about the bombing, and I've got people from
all different political perspectives on there and they're having a conversation.
And I look at that and I think, Okay, we
need more of that, please, because it's civil. It's very definite,
but it's still very civil.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Laurie, tell me about your event coming up. You've got
an astronaut coming to talk about civility. And when I
first saw this, I was like, it didn't even occur
to me that if you're going to be on the
space station for six months, you better be able to
get along with everybody because talk about close quarters.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
How did you get this guy right?
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Well, it's someone that we know from the community, and
he was on the International Space Station and had this
you know, spoiler alert. He had this amazing interaction with
the Russians over coffee, and so he tells his story,
and the point is that as human beings, we have
(10:52):
more in common than in contrast. You know, one of
our heroes is a man named Daryl Davis. He's a
black man who made friends with a Grand Wizard of
the Ku Klux Klan and through that friendship.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
The Grand Wizard gave up his position.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
To date, Darryl has collected over two hundred robes, medallions,
and hoods of people who have changed their mind because
of friendship. So we really believe that it all starts
with relationship. And no matter what side of the aisle
you're on, people are craving that.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
You know, I understand your question.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
For Sandra, there could be.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
A ping, you know, based on who's in charge, but
I think it's just a general We're tired of this.
Good people who really want to be civil. They want
to treat people respectfully. So we're starting to see the
needle shift and there's kind of momentum going, kind of
a movement towards back towards We call it reclaiming civility
(11:52):
because there's been evan flow all through history from the
very beginning. We want to reclaim that civility that wants
was there.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I think people are just exhausted, you know, it is.
I have one of my dear friends is a left
wing Democrat, and we've been friends since childhood. And when
I say dear friends, like she's my ride or die
on many many issues, right, But we have always been
able to have respectful conversations about politics because we have
(12:23):
a foundation of genuine love for each other, right, I mean,
there's a deep and abiding love there. But at the
same time, the way she consumes politics and news, it
is perpetually upsetting to her. And I think she's representative
of a lot of people who are every day it's whiplash,
it's every day.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
What's happening?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Now?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Every day? What do I have to worry about?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
And I love the fact that you are just focusing
on the human connections because that those underpinnings. That human
connection that I have with her is the thing that
has kept our friendship going for fifty years now, because
we're first and foremost, we are deep and abiding friends.
And I love to think that we're going to get
back to a point where you're going to be able
(13:06):
to disagree with a family member or disagree with a
friend without feeling like you have to excommunicate them out
of your life, which I When I hear of people
being removed from other people's lives because of politics, I
find that heartbreaking because there's nothing more hollow than politics
as a reason to remove someone from your life. It
really is in my view anyway. So I'll let you guys, Sandra,
(13:27):
You guys have some events coming up. I did put
a link to both websites on the blog today. So
can people join? How do they join your organization? Sandra,
I'll start with you, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
You can join Braver Angels simply by going to braver
Angels dot org. It's twelve dollars a year and we
offer free workshops, free debates, etc. Our local alliance is
the Colorado Southern Front Range Alliance, which is based out
of Douglas County, but it goes all the way down
to puebloam Beyond. We partnered with Reclaiming Civility to host
(14:02):
two more events. We'll have one on the third Saturday
of July. We'll have Skills for Disagreeing Better workshop in
the morning from nine to noon in Colorado Springs, and
then we'll have a debate where the stopic is Colorado's
gun laws unfairly in French on personal freedoms for two hours.
We are looking for speakers pro and con whether those
(14:24):
gun rights in French gun control laws in French. And
then on August sixteenth, we will have an apolitical Skills
workshop where we drill down on lap skills, which is listening, acknowledge,
pivot and perspective. And in the afternoon the debate is
the First Amendment correctly prioritizes freedom of religion over freedom
(14:45):
from religion. And again we are looking for speakers. It's
a community debate, so we start with four speakers and
then everybody can engage. So you can find that on
cos turnewurl dot com, slash Civil twenty five or on
Reclaiming Civility dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
All right, and Laurie, how can people do in reclaiming
civility right, so just go to www.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Dot Reclaiming civility dot com.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
You can also register for.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
The Braver Angels events their sability on the space station.
The registration link is there on July tenth, or if
you're interested, if you have a small business or you're
a manager, or a nonprofit or any kind of group
that you would like us to come and give a workshop,
you can reach.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Out to us that way.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Laurie Leander and Sarah excuse me, Sandra Brown Red, thank
you so much for making time and thank you for.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
What you're doing. I wish you all the success in
the world.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And please let me know if I can support your
organizations in the future. By just letting people know what's
coming up, I think my audience would very much enjoy those.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Thank you man.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Thank you
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.