Longboat Key Democratic Club meets for first meeting since pandemic

The Longboat Key Democratic Club met for the first time since before the pandemic on Nov. 2. Members gathered at the Sarasota Yacht Club for lunch and to hear a talk from Racelle Weiman, an international scholar in Conflict and Genocide Studies, about how to open dialogue and move away from polarization. After lunch, Weiman, who is the executive director of the Dialogue Institute at Temple University, gave an overview of her work in genocide prevention, times she has successfully opened dialogue and highlighted five different kinds of dialogue. 

The first point was that it’s important to know when dialogue is impossible. One experience Weiman had was with a perpetrator of the Rwandan genocide. 

“​​When it's gone beyond the extremes of humanity, there's places where dialogue doesn't exist … There is no dialogue, there's only putting people on trial for justice,” Weiman said. 

The next type of dialogue she discussed was another absence of it — when dialogue is supposed to take place, but not participating in dialogue actually turns out to be the correct answer. Once, Weiman was scheduled to talk with Muslim and Christian scholars in Bangladesh for interfaith work being done there. Bangladesh is historically anti-semitic, and Weiman is Jewish. Her visa never came, but the one for her Christian colleague did. 

“Sometimes not dialoguing would have been better,” Weiman said. “It's interesting because he did get on the plane without me … And eight years later, the Muslim scholar called me and he said that was the biggest mistake that ever happened. He said, ‘I was hoping he wouldn't do it so that would force our government to change. Change did not happen.’”

Dialogue by trust and tit-for-tat dialogue were the next two that Weiman discussed; the first relying on trust between parties and the second being the idea that if something worked here, perhaps it’ll work in this new situation. The final point of discussion was talk-down, which is when two groups are made to sit down and start at the beginning to talk things through.

“The greatest part of coming to dialogue is the ability to admit errors,” Weiman said. 

Before ending the discussion, Weiman emphasized the courage to confront fears and asked participants to write down what scares them the most about what’s happening in the country and world today, and then where they could find the courage to confront it. 

“Where are we going to find those resources of courage to be able to address your fear?” Weiman said. “Because this will maybe be the mandate for your particular organization, finding the courage, being empowered by it, finding incredible ways not only to reach across the aisle, but to reach to one another to find many different ways to make things happen.”

Weiman is also the facilitator for the Miracle on the Key project, which is bringing members of the Democratic club and Republicans club together to discuss common ground, engage in dialogue and work through differences. The clubs’ hope is that the project will provide a blueprint and wake-up call for elected officials to engage in similar across-the-aisle discussions.