KENOSHA, WISCONSIN — When Taylor resident Rick von Pfeil first heard there were national organizations that promoted a return to civil discourse, he jumped in with both feet and wrangled an invitation to a threeday national convention as a delegate.
“This is something I’ve always felt. I want people to be able to listen and understand people from different perspectives. It’s something I think society is missing right now. That’s part of the reason we’re so divided because we’re not really engaging and listening and understanding each other,” von Pfeil said.
An untiring community advocate, von Pfeil first got involved when a friend introduced him to the Institute for Civility.
“I was so impressed with it because I didn’t know that an organization like that existed. So, I started doing research looking for other organizations that have a similar purpose. Then I came across Braver Angels,” he said He secured a membership and attended the 2024 Braver Angels national convention June 27-29 in Kenosha, Wisconsin as a delegate.
“Braver Angels is an organization whose mission is to bring together people from the political left side of the spectrum and political right side of the spectrum for healthy civil dialog and discourse with the goal of trying to understand each other better,” von Pfeil said. “It’s not about debate at all. It’s about engaging and listening and understanding what someone else believes about current political topics.”
David Blankenhorn, president of Braver Angels, takes it a step further. He says at the heart of the country’s current incivility is a breakdown of friendship.
“In dark times, we lose the willingness and even the capacity to accommodate others for the sake of unity. Why? Because we’ve lost that civic friendship that is the primary rationale for compromise. Friendship is prior to accommodation, not its result. Without conversation there is no friendship; without friendship there is no trust; and without trust there is little chance for compromise,” he said in his address at the national convention. “When the discourse of friendship fades away, opponents become enemies and compromise for the sake of unity becomes weakness.”
Von Pfeil agreed, citing early American history as an example of this concept.
“The founding fathers spent months and years debating and arguing about topics but then would go to dinner together, and come back and debate and argue more, but they were still friends and were still pursuing the same purpose. I think we need more of that.”
Von Pfeil said the next step in his journey is to bring the techniques he learned at the conference back home to Taylor and teach others how to have civil discussion across different belief and political systems.
“The benefit to going to the convention was learning the philosophy and being immersed in that ecosystem of learning how to ask questions and engage in a civil way. Part of the reason we’re so divided is because we’re not really engaging and listening and understanding each other. Braver Angels is teaching the methods and giving the tools to do that,” he said.
Von Pfeil recounted that from the moment the convention started, people were encouraged to find those with opposing political views – indicated by whether they were wearing a red or a blue lanyard – and have meaningful engagements, listening and discussing different viewpoints. He added he was excited to bring what he learned back to Taylor.
“I believe that Taylor is a microcosm of the national divide,” he said. “We’re a small community and we all know each other, but those divisions are pretty strong.”
The community advocate is currently reaching out to members of the community to start a local chapter of Braver Angels.
“Basically, anyone that’s interested in pursuing this type of civil discourse and learning from the other side, I would like them to be a part of growing that here. I want people in Taylor to know that we actually have a lot more in common than we believe,” he said.
Von Pfeil said the experiments of people with red and blue lanyards seeking each other out for civil discussions at the Braver Angels convention showed him that there isn’t as much division between ideals as people may think, and discussing how people arrived at their beliefs can help bridge that divide.
“We need to have a better understanding of where that person’s coming from and it helps to understand their history. You learn a lot about people and it humanizes people when you start to understand why they believe what they do and how they came to those beliefs,” he said.
Von Pfeil invited anyone interested in learning more to contact him at facebook.com/rick. pfeil.98.
