On March 24 2021, Mr. Bruce Morlan and Richard DeBeau addressed the club about “Braver Angels.” Mr. George Wickstrom introduced the gentlemen to the club. Braver Angels strives to explore peace and reconciliation in the political realm.
Explaining how Braver Angels was formed, Morlan and DeBeau highlighted the results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election had unexpected and caused the electorate to exam what it meant to be a liberal or a conservative. The election had further divided the nation along partisan political lines.
Seeking to bridge the divide a group of people gathered for a meeting in Ohio evenly divided along partisan grounds. The group eventually started calling themselves “Braver Angels” and appeared on various media programs from 2017-2018 transforming Braver Angels into a national movement. The Braver Angels idea is to form Red/Blue community alliances, teach practical skills for communicating across political divides and make strong public arguments for depolarization. The goal is not victory but reaching common understanding. It involves letting go of individuals’ need to be right.
Braver Angels’ mission is to depolarize and unify a divided nation. They pledge to remove hatred from political discourse and build working alliances to foster new ways to talk and improve our communities.
Braver Angels offers workshops throughout the nation. Over 1000 workshops in almost every state have been held around the country with thousands of participants. The workshops teach skills for bridging the partisan divide, depolarizing within, and dealing with families. The workshops are designed to be balanced politically and seek to find common ground. Workshops also have initiated conversations about race in America.
Throughout the presentation, Morlan and DeBeau used the principles on which the Rotary has been founded as a basis for the work of the Braver Angels. Rotarians can help bridge the partisan gap and use its culture of service and selflessness to help bridge differences among communities
