Polarization in Politics, and the Search for Meaningful Dialog

In the midst of what seems like extreme polarization in politics, a national organization is working to bridge divides.  Better Angels is working to bring dialog to a fractured nation.  Better Angels groups are working here in the Triangle!  Here is an excerpt from the website of Better Angels:

“In December, 2016, ten Trump supporters and eleven Clinton supporters gathered in South Lebanon, Ohio, in what became the first Better Angels Red/Blue Workshop. The goal?  To see if we could respectfully disagree and find any common ground.

“The results were remarkable.  We liked each other.  We wanted to know more about each other.  We wanted to keep on meeting.  We wanted to help start workshops in communities all across America!  Those reds and blues invited their friends to another workshop and helped to found the first Better Angels Alliance.”

Our guest speakers will be Laura Gilliom and George Thompson, who are members of a group at the Community Church of Chapel Hill, Unitarian Universalist, called “Sanctuary for Dialogue.”  The group was formed in 2015 with the purpose of leading conversations on difficult topics within the church and in the community.  After the 2016 election, Laura and George discovered Better Angels, and found it to be a very good fit with their mission.  Several members of their group got trained as moderators, and began holding workshops.  As a group, they have held approximately 16 workshops in total, most in the Triangle area, but some in the Triad and in South Carolina.

Professionally, Laura is a clinical psychologist with a private practice doing couples and individual therapy, and George is a retired school counselor and an active musician.