Since the last presidential race and election, the polarization of neighbors with different political views has widened and the vitriol of public discourse has increased. Sadly, I have watched neighbors turn away from each other — and friendships deeply wounded — based on political arguments that are sharply laced with vilification.
Common ground seems increasingly abandoned in favor of ideological ghettos where we can stay in our comfort zones with like-minded allies. We have become increasingly marginalized from one another as “reds” and “blues.”
As a pastor, a father, a neighbor and a citizen, I have been looking for opportunities where people can re-engage and work together as neighbors — even beyond their political differences. To that end, I have reached out to a bipartisan organization called “Better Angels” with the hope of helping neighbors re-engage and find common ground in community service.
Better Angels began in 2016 as a bipartisan citizens’ movement that seeks to “[build] new ways to talk to one another, participate together in public life, and influence the direction of the nation.” Their mission is to “depolarize America.”
It is not a religious organization and gets its name from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address given just before the onset of the Civil War: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory…will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Better Angels run community-based Red/Blue Workshops facilitated by trained moderators that bring two sides together. I am looking to recruit people willing to participate in one of these workshops on Sunday, June 10 at 1 p.m. Each workshop needs 7 “red” and 7 “blue” participants.
My goal is to not only bring neighbors together for these workshops, but to build an ongoing Better Angels Alliance in the Hopewell region.
To participate and/or to help with the workshop, please contact me at dennismoneilljr@gmail.com or (908) 328-7821. For more information about the Better Angels organization visit better-angels.org.
— Dennis O’Neill
Dennis O’Neill is pastor of Calvary Baptist Church of Hopewell.
