Civil Conversations on Conflicts
Lincoln-Douglas Debates

On the way to my son’s home today I was listening to Public Radio and heard a discussion about how difficult it is in this country to speak about race. Even with an African-American president we still are uncomfortable talking about racism in our society. I would say the same is true for violence. We can superficially talk about too much violence on TV and movies or about gun violence, but when it comes right down to seeing how violence is so embedded in our society from wars we conduct to the overwhelming availability of hand guns, we get uncomfortable and find it hard, like with racism, to have a civil and in-depth conversation.

About a week ago I was working on a list of the ‘top ten things persons do not want to hear about’. I put it aside since it had something controversial for everyone on it, liberals and conservatives, Christians and Atheists, war and peace advocates and pro-choice and pro-life proponents. Except for young children or persons child-like, we all seem to have some subjects we avoid or have a difficult time having a healthy conversation about.

After I was interviewed last Saturday about the sixties I thought how in 1968 we could say something about “institutional racism” at Marquette University, have a conversation about it and it led to a change in the policies of the administrations. It was an uncomfortable conversation, but it did happen. Now if we say something about the “institutional violence” practiced at Marquette with hosting major departments of military training, we are ignored and “no dialog is possible” and change is difficult to achieve. Almost no one wants to hear about it, even the so call ‘peace’ leaders at Marquette.

This same thought crossed my mind when I was creating the Debate Forum on the moral issue of Marquette hosting the military on campus and I modeled them around a very civil conversation on slavery, the Lincoln Douglas debates of 1858.

I guess the time of civil, healthy criticism, open debate, discussion and ‘creative conflict’ is over for now, in the US congress, our Churches and Institutions. But maybe this is the change we are looking for: Civil, Creative Conversations on Conflicts.

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