Bridging the Divide
This year I partook in a program called "Bridging the Divide" which seeks to promote a deeper understanding across the many divides (rural/urban, red/blue, etc) facing our country today.
The program, founded by the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics and Eureka College, just wrapped up its second year, with Loyola's Arrupe College joining this year as a third partner. Participants come together for three sessions in Chicago, Eureka, and Springfield (IL), where they listen to focus groups, meet with lawmaker and activists, and brainstorm ideas with each other to solve the most pressing problems of our time.
As someone who has spent years of my life working to foster understanding with foreign nations and advocating for cross-cultural student exchange programs on the international stage, it only seemed right to me that at a time when our nation is at one of it's most divided points, there be a cross-cultural student exchange within our own country. Diversity is a great source of our strength–and I firmly reject the belief that diversity must accompany lower societal cohesion–but there is nonetheless merit to the idea that there are multiple realities facing people in our land today.
Until we can unify these realities enough to revitalize the American dream (even if it still remains a dream, the hope it provides is important for change), and more importantly, provide a unity on which hard conversations representing differing opinions can be had, we will continue to struggle. Just as traveling, talking, and sharing in the daily routines of life can help an American and a Russian find common ground, so too can it help a Democrat and a Republican.
While the three weekends I spent on program certainly taught me much, and re-invigorated my sense of hope for the future, I thought it might be most interesting to hear from some fellow participants. Perhaps you will even be inspired to bridge divides in your own communities. Every step, no matter how small, counts!
Bridging the Divide has made me want to build a community within my own. One that can enact positive, egalitarian change, one that can engage the apolitical, one that defies the pre-supposed logic of society at large that peddles erasure and dislocation.
This program has helped me speak to those of different backgrounds from myself and still manage to find common ground. I hope to meet many more people and continue these important discussions going forward.
– Zach Walter, Eureka College
I learned a lot at Bridging the Divide. I’m originally from the South, so I knew a lot about the intense differences in ideologies that exist in this country, but I don’t think I’d ever truly explored them until this program. I loved the chance to understand the differences that I had noticed in the communities I had lived in through the lens of critical thinking.
This is not just a North and South issue, this is an urban and rural issue, this divide that exists in our country. It’s easy to stereotype and name call, but at the end of the day, we all really want the same things, we just have different ideas about how to get there. I also think that it’s important to recognize the part we play in the divide that does exist in our country. I plan to go back to my conservative hometown one day because I love it, and I want to help the community there to be better.
And I think the idea of returning to these communities is something that all of the people who were so eager to leave need to think about. Change can’t happen if the divide grows larger, change can only happen when people are willing to put the effort in to make it happen and I think that’s something that falls into the hands of this generation.
– Dessa O'Neal, the University of Chicago
Thank you Zach and Dessa for sharing your thoughts on the program, it was a joy getting to hear your stories over the three weekends and I can't wait to hear where you go in the future.
If you're interested in learning more about Bridging the Divide, you can watch the PBS special and read the official description here.
###
Photo is the Lincoln Statue in front of the Illinois State Capitol. It is only fitting that Bridging the Divide concludes in Springfield–with its ties to Lincoln–as he is the figure of American history for unifying a "house divided against itself".
