Carol Off, CBC radio personality and journalist extraordinaire, recently came to Castlegar to present at the Selkirk College, Mir Centre of Peace.
Off talked about the importance of reclaiming the words that give life and meaning to our society. She talked of how in recent years, she has noticed a fundamental shift in how people talk to one another. We used to be able to disagree, she says, but now we only know how to hate.
Most of her talk was devoted to exploring words that she thinks we need to hold on to, across political lines, as a shared vocabulary so that we can keep talking and listening to each other. She explores this in depth in her fantastic new book, At a Loss for Words: Conversation in an Age of Rage.
Off’s presentation and book is a relevant topic for libraries. The stress of ever-increasing polarization in our communities has certainly been at the forefront of programing and collection development. We all know that libraries have been a battleground for these social wars – not surprising since libraries are designed to reflect their communities.
But could this political climate also represent an opportunity? A chance for libraries to hold space for bridge-building in our communities and fostering that concept of Convivencia in our programs. Where else in our society do people rub shoulders with someone they might disagree politically with? And can the library play a role in bridging that divide, or even just being a place where diversity of thought and opinion can be expressed in a civil manner?
Off mentioned some initiatives in bridge-building that has given her hope lately, many of them have their origins in libraries.
The Lyceum Movement, for example, aims to bring diverse people together with their neighbours to ask the big, timeless questions and build a healthier culture of public discourse: “Asking these questions together, we can build better lives, better community, better democracy.”
And how is this for a Code of Conduct?
The 6 Habits of Lyceum Conversation
- Read our neighbor’s words in the best light.
- Talk for the sake of truth and understanding, not victory.
- See ourselves as fundamentally on the same team, even with those who disagree.
- Acknowledge what we don’t yet know.
- Talk for the sake of building up community.
- Look for something to love in every person.
Another example is the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange, a program that brings rural and urban people together in unique community settings over weekend-long intensives. Participants work together to find commonalities, deepen connections to the people and places of the area, and collaborate on projects that improve Kentucky communities.
Closer to home, there is the Rural Talks to Rural (R2R), which is a biennial conference in Ontario that provides a space for people to come together and connect with different stakeholders who support rural development. It is space designed to explore differences together and help rural people talk to other rural people.
Could these examples that Off provides be inspiration for our libraries to create and hold space for diverse thought? Easier said than done, but eminently worth trying.
Written by KLF staff.