Building Bridges Across the Partisan Divide: A Conversation with Dennis Cohen

This conversation with Dennis Cohen, co-hosted by Anodea Judith and Michael Wayne, is part of the Voices for the Future interview series, voicesforthefuture.org/
The name of this program, Building Bridges Across the Partisan Divide, looks at how Americans can come together across the political and ideological divide.
Dennis Cohen is the founder and CEO of Resolutionaries, a nonpartisan, non-profit dedicated to bringing Americans together. The aim of Resolutionaries is to inspire respectful conversation, nurture common civic values, and build bridges across ideological and political divides.
Dennis began his professional career as a lawyer and mediator, mediating with couples going through divorce since 2000. His work demonstrates that even when couples are hurt, angry, bitter, and mistrustful, they nevertheless are able to find common ground and enter into an agreement, for their own sake and that of their children.
In 2015, Dennis expanded that work into the political arena, bringing together people from across the political spectrum to dialogue about divisive issues such as gun control, abortion, immigration, Black Lives Matter, and mandatory vaccination.
Again and again, the simple process of being curious and respectfully listening shifted passionately divergent individuals not to change their beliefs, but to change how they viewed those who disagreed with them. Overwhelmingly, participants report positive feelings after the process and the desire for more of the same. That simple yet profound shift is the necessary first step to shifting our world from divisiveness to unity.
In a nation being torn apart by polarity and divisiveness, finding ways to bridge the partisan divide in order to help us realize we have more in common than not is an important mechanism to bringing people together.
You can learn more about Resolutionaries by going here: resolutionaries.org/

[@susancollyer6186]

WOW! LOVE THIS! Thank you sooo much! we must be the bridge. REPOSTING as much as possible!