The Nahant Village Church and the town library have launched an interesting initiative focused not on faith, but on civility. A church statement describes Bridge the Divide as a collaboration “… aimed at addressing the dramatic decline in civil discourse over the years — not only politically, but also as it concerns town issues.”
The church and the library hosted a breakfast discussion Friday on civil discourse and other events are planned with the goal of raising, according to the statement, ” … awareness of the importance of engaging in civil conversations.”
Anyone who lives in town or has paid attention to Nahant news during the last two years can readily conclude that Bridge the Divide is aimed in part at dampening the rancor that has exploded in Nahant over Northeastern University’s expansion and construction plans for its East Point Marine Science Center.
An unobtrusive, almost invisible neighbor for decades, the Center became Public Enemy Number One in Nahant with plans that town critics claim threaten wetlands, lobster beds and the general welfare of the town.
A town protest movement dotted Nahant with signs denouncing the expansion, and protesters have dogged Northeastern’s every move locally. Like warring armies arrayed on a battlefield, protesters and Northeastern traded salvoes in August with 28 residents filing a lawsuit claiming Northeastern “shocked the public’s conscience” by cutting an access road through East Point.
Not to be outdone, Northeastern filed its own suit in August after receiving a letter from residents threatening to sue the university. It’s hard to imagine any agreement, much less civil discourse, smoothing out the town and gown relationship.
But it’s easy to agree with Bridge the Divide organizers that civil conversations have gone the way of the ascot and the curtsy. What is really missing from today’s discourse at the town, state, or national level is listening.
In an age of instant communication, with tweets fired like intercontinental ballistic missiles, the art of listening is in danger of extinction. Discourse appears to now be defined by who can make the most dramatic point or shout the loudest. The notion of someone exercising the right to state a different point of view has fallen into social disfavor with people quick to slap an unflattering and demeaning label on anyone who disagrees with them.
From the Tweeter in Chief all the way down to the corner coffee shop argument, discourse in America is a shabby shadow of its former great self. But Bridge the Divide is proof that all is not lost. It may just be a constructive way to resurrect the art of listening and, by extension, the art of civil discourse.
