>From Fairfield’s Julie Mandarino:
I’ve been concerned about the divisiveness in our country. One friend referred to it as a civil war. Although that seems rather extreme, my current interest is on finding ways to bridge the gap. To that end, I’ve become part of a group that promotes dialogue between Liberals and Conservatives, or Blues and Reds. The group started when a marriage therapist viewed the political divide in our country as akin to a couple on the brink of divorce. He trained some colleagues in group facilitation and went around the country leading groups of an equal number of Reds and Blues. The outcome was good enough that some other people have taken off with the idea. By now, they have a national organization which they call “Better Angels” (not my favorite name). You may be wondering, why am I writing to you? Apparently there are very few people in Iowa who have joined this organization (a total of 3, i think, including me). They contacted me to ask if I know any Reds in my area who might want to participate. Do you know any who might be interested in a structured, bi-partisan dialogue? If you do, feel free to forward this email to them, and they can then contact me about it. Here is a link about the group that I posted on FB last week, in case anyone wants to know a bit more about it: https://www.facebook.com/juliemandarino/posts/10210726668034559 <https://www.facebook.com/juliemandarino/posts/10210726668034559> If you have any suggestions or thoughts, I’d love to hear them. Thanks, 💕 Julie
