Braver Angels seeks dialogue across the partisan divide

I hope you’ll listen to this week’s program and share your feedback, especially on the topic Melinda Voss and I dive into.

Maybe you disagree, but the way Melinda and I see it, since we’re at a time when a former president calls his opponents “vermin” and a previous candidate for president refers to opponent’s supporters as “deplorable,” we need to nurture respectful dialogue now more than ever.

That’s only going to happen if we each make an effort to have those tough conversations with our uncle whose primary source of information is Fox News. Or with our niece who’s fond of cancelling any public figure she disagrees with. For an excellent, 15-minute documentary, on how this is possible and why it’s important, check out Ralph King’s “Crossing the Divide.” Continue Reading →

Crossing the Divide

In 2017, Bold Iowa organized the Climate Justice Unity March. Thirty marchers walked 90 miles from Little Creek Camp in eastern Iowa to Des Moines, representing a mix of Native and non-Native allies united in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). 

Unfortunately, on the first day of the march, we were met with severe opposition from local residents, who had been fed lies by a pro-pipeline group associated with DAPL. (Click here to watch the hateful  video the group circulated.) Cars buzzed us along the highway. We were repeatedly flipped off. When we arrived at our campsite in Deep River, we were greeted by a confederate flag. During the night, we heard what we thought were gun shots. Continue Reading →

Walking to Glasgow for climate

Rachel Mander is with the Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN). They are walking to Glasgow because the importance of the COP26 summit cannot be overstated. As the world’s most prominent climate scientists laid out recently, we have come to the do-or-die moment. A full-fledged transformation of how we live on planet Earth must happen NOW!

What these young people are doing is important and inspiring. Hopefully, world leaders preparing to gather at Glasgow are paying attention. Nations need to agree to a climate strategy that far outpaces the limited outcomes of the COP21 climate summit in Paris in 2015. Continue Reading →