Civil Civic Debate & Poetry

“Civic engagement is not only or mainly about learning how the government works, what each branch does and so on. It’s above all about learning how to engage in public deliberation and argument about big questions that matter. Learning how to listen to those with whom we disagree—and to respond, and to argue, and to defend one’s position with civility and mutual respect. But also with a kind of confidence and poise.

“We are not born knowing how to do this. This is a civic art that democracy requires, and that we need to learn.”
–Michael Sandel

Speaking of “civic art”—This week we are resurfacing a couple of pieces inspired by stories CEO Chris Neklason found while scanning the state for our News Digest (see below), and one of them has to do with poetry. 

Many California counties and cities last week announced the appointments of their poet laureates. (Again, you may well find news about your local public poet below.) As champions of civic institutions doing cool stuff, we applaud the state's robust commitment to poetry. And I commend you to a signal booster below introducing Lee Herrick, who was named California’s poet laureate in 2022, and remains in that post.

Herrick has taught poetry at Fresno City College for 26 years, and served as that city’s poet laureate for two of those. He takes his quasi-governmental role seriously, seeing himself as “a conduit between the literary and poetry world, and the civic and public sphere.” 

To that end, Herrick, who was weaned on punk and Run-D.M.C., initiated a project called “Our California,” in which he invited poets of any experience level, age or background to compose a poem about their city, town, or state, “exploring what they love about it, what joy they find in it, what they would change about it, or what they hope for.”

The submissions to the project are closed, but you can find some powerful work, arranged by county, on the Our California website.

Can Democrats and Republicans talk to each other?

Chris found an item last week involving another Central Valley city, in this case Manteca, in San Joaquin County. There, the Manteca Interfaith Community Appeal (MICA) is hosting a gathering of a group called Braver Angels. 

From the Manteca/Rippon Bulletin: “Braver Angels is leading the nation’s largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide for the good of our democratic republic.

 “The organization's  goal is to “bring together ‘We the People’ to find a hopeful alternative to toxic politics. The American Hope campaign is equipping Americans across the political spectrum to work together and demand the same of politicians from both parties.”

I realize that a call for cease-fire and reconciliation at this moment in history may seem like an outrage to folks on either side of a political divide that has become a yawning chasm. Before continuing, I want to state for the record that California Local is a non-partisan purveyor of news and information. That does not mean we are neutral. We do not claim journalistic objectivity—our perspective is not the “view from nowhere.” We are a fact-based organization with a commitment to truth and to democracy.

Speaking for myself, like many of my professional peers, I do not identify as a member of a political party, but rather as a journalist. In my trade, the first step is to consider all sides of every issue. I will admit that that has been more difficult over the past decade than ever before. I’ve come to believe, over the past several months, that there has never been a more important time to do it.

I believe the political philosopher Michael Sandell, quoted at the top of this brief essay, makes the best argument for this, when he suggests that the most important thing we all must do as citizens is to “learn to listen, respectfully and attentively, to those with whom we disagree.” Hard work. Hope this helps.