When was the last time someone changed your mind by ridiculing your core beliefs, or questioning your motives or intelligence? For most of us the answer is “never.” We are influenced by honest, respectful engagement. So why is it becoming so rare?
This is the issue we are addressing with The Neutral Ground — a large and growing core of citizens who embrace the critical importance of healthy discourse and model behaviors that reinforce mutual respect and trust. The group was founded in 2022 based on a shared sense of alarm. The toxic state of how we disagree has inescapable consequences to the health of our country and society. At The Neutral Ground we refuse to be passive in the face of this erosion.
Our founders and original subscribers come from a range of backgrounds, ages, races, careers paths and political convictions. All are people with a wide range of temperaments, talents and convictions but all are highly attuned to the central need for civility in public discourse.
We understand that democracy, and society itself, depend on a certain forbearance.
Taking inspiration from similar organizations that have popped up around the country, the idea is that The Neutral Ground can be an example of what good public discourse looks like.
And what does it look like?
- We don’t consider people who disagree with us our enemies. We don’t assume they are less well-intentioned or less competent than we are. We can be in the same room with them without feeling threatened, or feeling we are violating some personal commitment to our beliefs.
- We understand that democracy imposes certain boundaries on how we can influence others. Force and intimidation are outside the boundaries. This leaves persuasion as the main tool of influencing others. Persuasion depends on respect.
- At a high level, when we disagree with someone, we actually do the work to understand their point of view. Great examples were Supreme Court Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan in their relationship with colleague Antonin Scalia.
What Are We Doing?
The group of founders had a series of meetings beginning in 2020, which eventually led to formally organizing in 2022. At that time, we published a newsletter to a membership list but were not satisfied with our impact, so we converted to a series of live speaker panels with advocates from opposing views modeling civility in debates on topics of key local interest.
On April 4, 2024, the Jewish Community Center hosted a filled hall to listen to Caroline Roemer and Ann Duplessis debate the pros and cons of educational savings accounts. Both were frank, but both were also quite friendly and respectful. This is a powerful example, and we have more panel topics in the works. Media partners WWL-TV and The Times-Picayune have republished our content with commentary. We hope to continue the speaker series and eventually involve high school or college audiences with lesson plans, etc.
If you’d like to learn more about The Neutral Ground, go to TheNeutralGround.org and register for updates.
John Landrum is the co-founder and board chair of The NonPartisan Center for Health in Public Discourse (dba the Neutral Ground). He may be reached at john.landrum@intralox.com.
