We Can Mend Our Divisions, a Colorado Town Shows
A town in Colorado was deeply divided by politics, but found a way to heal in these turbulent times.
Last week's New York Times longform essay, "Divided by Politics, a Colorado Town Mends Its Broken Bones," tells the story of Silverton, CO. Like a microcosm of much of America, Silverton residents were torn apart by the Trump presidency, right-wing media, and efforts to stem the pandemic. While I've never been there, some of its stories seemed all too familiar.
A kerfuffle over saying the pledge of allegiance during townhall meetings was turned into national news story by Fox News in 2020. After that, there was an effort to recall the mayor and death threats led to closing City Hall for a time.
“When people were making bomb threats to town hall, I felt awful, because that wasn’t my intent," the resident who reached out to Fox News told NYT.
“The town got Trumped,” another resident said.
The Proud Boys, a group whose leader has now been convicted for his role in the J6 insurrection, got involved, which led to the mayor fleeing town for 10 days due to credible death threats.
“We’d had big rows before, but this one was vicious because of the national political spectrum,” another resident said. “Trump had opened the spigot of being openly mean and just bad to other people.”
The report also found that "much of Silverton’s discord was tied to the Covid-19 pandemic, the retreat from common spaces and the advent of Zoom calls, with their alien feel."
But Silverton found a way out of these bitter divides with the help of Community Builders, a nonprofit devoted to helping local communities "build healthy, equitable, and prosperous places."
Clark Anderson, executive director of Community Builders, told NYT that Silverton residents always had differences to manage. But what changed was "the tenor of our leadership at the national level and the voices we listen to on the news, on the radio, online, they have tremendous influence, more than they used to.”
For a year and a half, Community Builders brought small groups of residents together "away from microphones and public spaces" and asked them open-ended questions about their visions for their community. Almost every resident participated and Community Builders found that they all "pretty much wanted the same thing for Silverton."
Regular readers of this newsletter know that we at AVC have been working on these same issues in families, churches and communities across the nation by providing resources such as Mending Division Academy. The NYT report was a heartening read. Here is a gift link you can use to read it if you don't have a subscription.
Keep these three important lessons in mind when thinking about mending the divisions in our nation:
First, mending division doesn't mean eliminating differences or forcing agreement. We do and will have disagreements on issues we all care deeply about. The main issue is how do we manage those differences and live together with those disagreements. In other words, we must learn to disagree well.
Second, when we do learn to disagree well we often find that our disagreements are not as far apart as we thought they were, as Silverton residents have shown.
Third, much of our division has been manufactured by agents of intolerance that profit off of our induced outrage.
AVC in the News
AVC Board Chair Neal Rickner was on the Future Hindsight podcast. Similar to the lessons learned in Silverton, Neal spoke about having conversations with friends and family members with whom you have strong disagreements. Check out it out here or on your favorite podcast app.
What Else We're Reading
Texas Tribune: “Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers”
Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.
In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban. In a separate move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.
CBS Sunday Morning: “Liz Cheney on why she believes Trump's reelection would mean the end of our republic”
"The Speaker of the House is a collaborator to overthrow the last election?" asked Dickerson.
"Absolutely," Cheney replied.
"What happens if Mike Johnson's the Speaker on the 6th of January, 2025?"
"He can't be," Cheney said. "You know, we're facing a situation with respect to the 2024 election where it's an existential crisis. And we have to ensure that we don't have a situation where an election that might be thrown into the House of Representatives is overseen by a Republican majority."
"So, you would prefer a Democratic majority?"
"I believe very strongly in those principles and ideals that have defined the Republican Party, but the Republican Party of today has made a choice, and they haven't chosen the Constitution. And so, I do think it presents a threat if the Republicans are in the majority in January 2025."
Read or watch the whole thing.
NBC News: “Jan. 6 rioter asks for early release, says he was ‘manipulated’ by Trump and Fox News”
Trump, Gardner wrote, was “the most powerful man in the world” and used his influence “to manipulate others in carrying out his missions while staying above the ‘fray.’” Gardner wrote that he and others felt “it was an obligation or patriotic duty to ensure the saving of the republic.” Jan. 6 rioters thought they were patriots, he wrote.
Now, Gardner says, he realizes “the nature of his crimes against the United States despite having been mislead [sic] to believe that they were acts of patriotism at the time.” Gardner wrote that he will live forever with “a cloud of shame over” his head.
Referring to himself in the third person, as is common in court filings, Gardner said his mind was “skewed by misinformation” and that he went to the Capitol on Jan. 6 “with the mind set of saving the republic from what he considered was some imaginary force that was set to destroy it.”
Gardner said it was “easy for many” to ask how he could have “listened to one man and been so naive,” but said there “was a collective of individuals that were highly prominent that promoted this idea that the government was under attack.” Gardner said he saw those people as “patriotic,” and that he “trusted the information that they were giving was solid.” He said he’s since learned better.
Gardner wrote that had it not been for the disinformation “peddled by powerfully influential people and news outlets such as ‘FOX NEWS’ that encouraged such actions on January 6,” he would be an employed American citizen paying his taxes.
“If these influential individuals had not peddled such fraudulent claims he would have been there for his grandparents that both passed away on this year,” Gardner wrote. “In addition to this he would have been in the lives of his children both physically and financially to support them from home.”
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