Photographer: Hannah RuhoffDr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer speaks on civility in 51ĀŅĀ×'s Baker Ballroom.
51ĀŅĀ× hosted its first āChallenging Dialoguesā lecture on Jan. 24 in Baker University Center. The series is part of the Universityās ongoing efforts to provide constructive outlets for campus-wide discussions about issues sparking debate across the nation and world.
, executive director emerita of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, served as the seriesā first keynote speaker and led a thought-provoking lecture entitled, āThe Power of In/Civility: Engaging in Challenging Conversations Across the University, Community, Nation.ā
OHIO President Dr. M. Duane Nellis thanked Dr. Lukensmeyer for visiting and sharing her knowledge and expertise on civil discourse with 51ĀŅĀ×; he also expressed his gratitude for the Challenging Dialogues for Contemporary Issues task force who spearhead the development of the new lecture series.
Dr. Nellis explained that the intent behind the new series isnāt to āsolve a specific issue or persuade someone to a particular conclusion, but to realize the importance of keeping lines of communication open.ā
Dr. Lukensmeyer commended President Nellis for creating a lecture series on difficult conversations as one of his strategic priorities for the University and said she was proud to be a part of its launch.
āThank you so much for the work that you do,ā President Nellis added. āGetting Americans to talk with one another, thatās no small feat in this day. Thank you for kicking off this very important lecture series.ā
Throughout her lecture, Dr. Lukensmeyer encouraged the audience to, no matter how hard, find common ground with someone they disagree with.
If democracy is going to work, she explained, it has to be a conversation ā but the quality of that conversation really matters.
āHow is it that our public and political discourse has become so degraded? People who are researching this and talk about it a lot say this is something that has been building for decades,ā Dr. Lukensmeyer said. āIt is also true that the presidential election cycle in 2016, both primary and general, really took it to a different level.ā
Such degraded discourse didnāt start with peoplesā behavior, she explained, but a set of structural changes in their lives, including: money in politics, gerrymandering, election rules, the 24/7 news cycle, social media, growing economic disparities and rising social isolation.
During in her keynote, Dr. Lukensmeyer showed a of two people on the opposite ends of the political spectrum who became unlikely friends ā How did this happen? One simply invited the other out for coffee, and they discovered that they had a lot more in common than either of them had first thought.
āThe message is, we donāt have to be enemies when weāre on the opposite side of something,ā said Dr. Lukensmeyer. āWe just have to learn to see each other as human beings.ā
Dr. Lukensmeyer displayed several political cartoons during her lecture. One depicted two adults verbally arguing and their children next to them saying to each other, āWanna talk?ā
Another cartoon displayed an individual on a gurney being rushed to a hospital with the word ācivilityā written on them. Dr. Lukensmeyer said what we donāt know is if that person ā civility ā will live or die.
Following her lecture, Dr. Lukensmeyer moderated a panel discussion with Dr. Robert Ingram, and Tyrone Carr. The panel shared how they engage their students in civil discourse and much more.
Dr. Lukensmeyer also hosted an hour-long scholarly discussion with numerous University students, faculty, staff and community members prior to her evening keynote lecture. She stressed that the issue of civility and incivility greatly matters.
āWe are absolutely bombarded on a daily basis with profound examples on incivility, disrespect, dehumanizing ā and people understand that thereās something about civility that really matters,ā she told the diverse group.
Americans are living at a distance from one another and making moral judgements about one another because of their differing political views, she said.
Dr. Lukensmeyer shared that she and her colleagues have spoken with political historians across the ideological spectrum, and asked each of them the same question: Is civility any worse today than it ever was?
āEverybody goes back to the Adams-Jefferson presidential race where yellow journalism was lying, but that was an aberration at that time,ā she added. āWhether they were on the right or the left of their ideology, 100 percent of the political historians we talked to that the phenomena we are watching right now in the United States of America, where we are demonizing each other because āyou voted for Hilary and I voted for Trump,ā has not been seen since the Civil War reconstruction and Jim Crow.ā
While she said the tense political climate will likely get worse over the next two years, Dr. Lukensmeyer has hope for Americans.
She praised OHIO for wanting to come together with its community to serve as a model of two entities, close in proximity but distant, who are equally committed to reestablishing the norms of civility and respect.
āIf in fact we are going to do something about this,ā she said, āitās going to come from we the people.ā
Photographer: Hannah RuhoffOHIO President M. Duane Nellis introduces Carolyn Lukensmeyer and speaks about the Challenging Dialogues lecture series.