Bridging Community Divides & Strengthening Civic Trust

Recently, the NLC Board of Directors unanimously adopted a civility resolution encouraging local governments to promote dignity, respect and constructive dialogue in public meetings and community engagement. As a continuation of the work to overcome our collective civility crisis, we are sharing a conversation from the 2026 Congressional City Conference, which brings together NLC partner The Dignity Index, the sponsors of the Building Civic Bridges Act, and local leaders from across the nation for a solutions-driven conversation about what communities need to bridge divides.

For more information, visit us at nlc.org.

Transcript

Melanie Fonder Kaye, Senior Executive and Director, Digital Engagement & Communications, National League of Cities 0:07

Welcome to another episode of Citiespeak, where we give listeners an insider's view of what local leadership in America means today and features conversations with government leaders and policy experts regarding the biggest issues and challenges facing America's cities, towns, and villages. Recently, the National League of Cities Board of Directors unanimously adopted a civility resolution encouraging local governments to promote dignity, respect, and constructive dialogue. To overcome our civility crisis, we're sharing a conversation from the 2026 Congressional City Conference, which brings together NLC Partner, the Dignity Index, and local leaders from across the nation for a solutions-driven conversation about what communities really need to bridge divides. Enjoy the discussion moderated by NLC President Kevin Kramer and come back again next week with another episode of Citiespeak.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

To help us frame the discussion we're going to be having today and outline some of the problems and solutions that communities are focused on, I'm going to invite NLC President and Councilmember from Louisville, Kentucky up to the stage. We will be recording this panel discussion for NLC's Cities Speaks podcast. So I will let President Kramer introduce the panelists for the podcast. Let's give President Kramer a warm round of applause.

SPEAKER_05 1:39

Thank you. Um thanks for letting me be here with you this morning. I'm really excited about this topic and this conversation. So um I want to introduce Representative Victoria Jones from the city of Lawrenceville, Georgia. So as Victoria comes up, she has the distinct honor of being able to brag on the fact that her town is a city of civility. So we're really, really happy to have you here, Victoria. Um also joining me on the stage will be Brad Kavanaugh, the mayor of Dubuque, Iowa. And we're especially happy to have Tim Shriver join us this morning. Um famous for any number of different things, but most recently for his work with the uh Dignity Index. So we're really grateful to have him here. So welcome all. Um happy to be here this morning. We'll go ahead and take a seat and I'll finish my notes. Okay. Get a little bit comfortable here. Um, so first I want to remind us why it is that we're here, because we all know that local governments deliver. Anybody who's been paying attention to anything for any number of years now knows that at the local level, we don't get to decide we don't have the resources, or we're gonna close, or we're gonna fight over a budget, and so we'll stall everything. Um, we have to get it done at the local level. So we're um we have to figure out how to work through these divides and and uh be civil with one another. So um I'm proud to note that NLC on Sunday uh unanimously passed a civility resolution. Um we announced that to the press and invited everyone who was present to go ahead and sign on to that as well. And we followed that immediately with uh requests that all of our local governments would take a look at how things are going in their own hometowns and come up with a civility pledge that meets their specific uh situation. So I'm joined in the audience by Ken Herndon, a councilman from Louisville, Kentucky. We just recently finished this work. We invited Braver Angels, it's a group that uh Tim Shriver knows well, um, and they came in and sat down with us and worked through the issues that we had, the concerns that we share, the values that we share, um, and helped us create a way of moving forward. Um, Ken took all of those ideas we had, formatted it very nicely, and it's a beautiful document now, and we're really proud of it. NLC did the same thing this past weekend. And we're asking cities and towns and villages across America to do the same. Um, every one of the leaders of NLC, myself, uh first Vice President Van Johnson from Savannah, Georgia, and uh Darley Doreen Garland from uh Arizona, we all have civility published. So please join us in that. Um I need to stop talking because the panel is really what you came here to hear, um, and I'm really happy that they've uh that they've joined us. So my first question will be for Tim Traver. Um Tim, the dignity index is a measure of how people talk to one another when they disagree. Can you share how communities have used the dignity index in their own conversations?

Tim Shriver 4:35

Yeah. Well, thank you, Mr. President, and thanks for having me, everybody. And happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. We can we can think of St. Patrick's Day as a day we celebrate getting together and treating each other with civility, although I'm not sure my Irish roots were so full of civility all the time. But we'll we'll leave that for another conversation. Um look, I think there's two points I'd like to make very quickly out of the gate. The first is uh that there's a new issue in American political life. Uh we uh issues emerge in politics over time, right? And they recede when they become less important. Uh and I think we're seeing the emergence of a new issue. Uh this issue of polarization and contempt uh pulling us apart and causing a war at home. Uh that's the reason this proclamation is so important that the league has passed. That's the reason so many of you are here. Uh you're working on, yes, schools, yes, fire, yes, police, yes, streets, yes, all those things, public works. But now you're also being asked to lead on a new issue, which is how do we navigate not our differences? This is the first point I want to make is I don't think the issue is that we differ. The issue is that we treat each other with contempt when we differ. Uh that's a big distinction that we're seeing from our colleagues when they try to implement the dignity index. The dignity movement is predicated on the idea that the thing that you all have to figure out how to model is not how to bring everybody to uh a centrist position or get everyone to agree. That is not the goal of democracy. The goal of democracy is not that everybody has the same opinion. The goal of democracy at the local level is that everybody can have their opinion and be heard and treated with dignity, even when people disagree with them. So there this is a big distinction. I think it's a big distinction. What cities and towns are doing with the dignity work right now is they're using it to moderate, uh, for instance, city council or town hall meetings. School boards are using this quite a lot. And they're, you know, if you look at the dignity index, you don't have it in front of you, but you could look at it on your on your phones if you like. Uh it's an eight-point scale, and sort of school districts have created what they call the five and up rule. So if you're going to address the council, if you're going to address the mayor, pro temp, if you're going to address, you have to use five and up language. People say, well, what's that? It's very easy to learn it. You hand out the dignity index and you show them five is like a good listener, six is somebody who's really curious, seven is someone who does listening and curiosity and humility, and eight is always dignity. So these are scales. Now at the bottom is violence, disdain, hatred. Not allowed in our town call meeting. Uh rephrase your question, ma'am, using five and up language. We're happy to answer your question about the allocation of funds or resources or public works or public safety. We're happy to answer your question, but you have to address us in five or up language. So people are using this as a way of creating a common framework that's not judging you for having an opinion. No, I don't want to hear your opinion. How dare you, sir, and uh shut that person down. No, we don't we we want to avoid that to the extent possible and create a common language that challenges us all to express our opinions, but try to remove the dehumanizing contempt from them. How dare you, you jerk, you hor. No, we that's not in our room. And by the way, I mean I'm a high school teacher uh by training. Uh a lot of what we see from our politicians would get you suspended from the average American high school. I mean, I see this every day. If if if a if a tenth grader said those things, they'd be in the principal's office and probably get a day or two uh uh uh vacation for having spoken that way, having used that kind of language. So uh these are practical tools that help us address this issue of contempt.

SPEAKER_05 8:46

That's a great answer. Thanks, and it's the perfect segue into um Councilmember Jones. Um we're seeing that in Georgia, you guys are actually putting some of this into place and have kind of been on the leading edge of this.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

So yes, absolutely, and thank you so much, President Kramer and LLC, for the opportunity to be here. Um you just really said some of the things that I was going to say about the dignity, and it's okay to disagree. So, the civility, I want to get to the civility training that we had in the city of Lawrenceville. And yes, it was a great experience and a great reminder that civility goes beyond simply being polite. It's really about how we lead and communicate, especially when we have differences, just as you said. Um, when disagreements come up as a city of civility, we learn the importance of uh listening with the intent to understand and finding that common ground. So uh showing respect during this challenging time is challenging for all communities, but showing that respect and what resonates with me is that civility isn't a sign of weakness, and we have to understand that. It is strength, it comes from a place of place of strength, and it helps us throughout whatever we do, and it helps us work through those differences, and it keeps our communities and our democracy strong. So, as a city of civility, as you said, um in Lawrenceville since 2023, we became a city of civility through Georgia Municipal Association, and we're very proud of that. Uh, we are so grateful for uh Larry Hansen, the CEO of GMA, who also was great in getting this program for for all of the cities of Georgia. The city of Lawrenceville was one of the first cities to become a city of civility. Now, that recognition means we've made a deliberate commitment to lead with respect and foster a culture of constructive dialogue within our city and our community. Now, to earn that designation, it's similar to National League of Cities. We've adopted a resolution based on GMA's recommendation. Um the mayor and council and key personnel have all taken the pledge for to be a city of civility. We've completed training, and we also have um training around nine pillars of civility, which doesn't stop there. We also reaffirm this commitment every two years. Every two years we go back and we reapply, and that just lets you know how committed we are to becoming and to continue being a city of civility. Um these steps is just something that we do. We don't just talk about it, we are intentional. So the other thing we have, you see, I'm holding this card. This is our civility pledge, and I'll I have some, I have a few, I'll be glad to share. And then on the back, it has the nine pillars. This card is a card that we hand out to people. We have our civility pledge in all of our conference rooms, we have it in our departments, it's hung up in our customer service areas. So we are intentional about being a city of civility. So thank you for the opportunity to share that.

SPEAKER_05 12:47

Great. Well, thank you very much. Absolutely so we've seen the this incivility rise beyond just words. Um, Mayor Kavanaugh with uh Dubuque Iowa, you guys had a situation where a person actually tried to get into your council chambers with a loaded gun. Um can you talk about how that has impacted your discussions around civility?

SPEAKER_04 13:10

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you very much for for being here today. I just uh first I have to say I'm I'm always struck when you give these presentations, and I mean it's it's fairly early in the morning on you know the second day of the conference. And just the fact that this room is filled up, it I think speaks to how important this issue has become for all of us. Um so yeah, I have the the less uplifting portion of this uh this discussion this morning, but um it I think it it I'm I'm learning a lot from what we're we're hearing already, and I'm very excited for these discussions. Yeah, last year, it was this month actually, last year, that we had an incident in the city of Dubuque where um it was an incident that had been building for a time. Um there was a gentleman who was clearly suffering from a mental health crisis and that um and had several run-ins with the police. The police had tried um to work with this gentleman. Um he had actually been arrested, and there was a warrant out for his arrest at the time. This is a um a man who had actually visited my home and left things at my door. It had visited our city attorney's home, our city manager's home, um, which are not addresses that you can easily find for those staff members, so that was very concerning. And um the police were well aware of what was going on, and this gentleman had been posting throughout the day that something was gonna that he was gonna show up at this city council meeting, and they were ready to be able to be there to to um work to see him. So we have we always have two police officers at every city council meeting. I live in a city of about 60,000 people, gives you a sense of of who we are and where we are. Um and when um he did show up at the meeting, the room was completely packed. I know that sounds surprising because it was a city council meeting, but this was one of those times when there was um, I think I had like five or six proclamations, and there were kids in the room, and we were talking about honeybee day and all these different things. And it was and it was very exciting to see all these people, but when he came, um he was very angry, and the police were able to confront him at the elevator outside before he came into the room. And it wasn't until after the meeting that we learned as a city council and as a city that he had he had entered with a loaded gun. And he had done so um with the intent to come and speak to us. And I have to be honest, I there's something that's impacted me from the moment I ever thought about running for something, and I didn't realize that it impacted me until I thought about it later. But um I don't know if everybody remembers uh Kirkwood, Missouri. But I lived in uh Crestwood, right outside of St. Louis, Missouri, for a few years following graduate school, and there was a shooting in 2008 in Kirkwood, Missouri, where an angry gentleman entered a council meeting, shot the police officer and killed him on the way in the door, shot the mayor and killed him when he got in there, and killed several council members and injured several others before killing himself. That I think changed the way we think about security in city council meetings, and I know it changed the way that Dubuque thinks about it. We have a plan, and we instituted that plan in this case, and had uh the police there to be able to serve us and and protect us and more importantly protect the community. And um I'm glad that that plan was in place and it and it worked because we did avoid a serious tragedy in this case, I think. Um it's uh it's an avoidance that still I think impacts us as a counsel, we still think about it. Um I'll say a couple of things about this because I think these are important points. Because I was struck by two things. So, first of all, everyone was safe. I was glad for that. Um I'm hopeful that this person will get the help that they need, um, but it is an ongoing court case and has involved prison time and those types of things. Um the first thing that struck me that has been that was disappointing leading up to it was that this person was encouraged by other members of the community to continue with his grievances um and pursue those grievances further on social media. It was really um a lot of people still use Facebook in uh in Dubuque. And this is where uh and I know that's not the same everywhere, so that's why I say it that way. But uh but that's where he was essentially posting things that um you know were were sort of diatribes against the police and against the city, and was really encouraged by enough community members, um, and people who probably weren't community members, but just encouraged on social media. That is disappointing to me, and I think it's a big part of our problem when we really think about what we're what we're facing and why we need to talk about um a dignity index and civility pledges and those types of things is because we're encouraged to have these faceless, dehumanizing conversations online by frankly, by the companies who have built these these machines, but then also um we we need to to make sure that we are uh thinking about that as a community too. Um the second thing that has that that really struck me about this is that it has impacted us for for so long, um, you know, as a as a city council, to have to think about the safety that we have and what that really means for us. That this is not just something that we go and do because we want to serve our community. Um this is something that can put our lives in danger. That to me is um something that we need to make sure our community is aware of. And frankly, this wasn't really reported that widely in the news locally for us. And I actually think it was a bigger deal than what it was made. The fact that this almost happened was something that we need to talk about. Um the fact that tragedies happen in places like El Paso, and thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, for your words, um, that they were definitely in it left an impact on me, so thank you for that. Um but I heard yesterday, you know, and this is something I know as a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, I mean, there's essentially a club of mayors who have gone through these tragedies. And that's just something that we shouldn't we shouldn't accept any further as Americans. So I'm I'm very thankful that we're having these conversations. I'm thankful that you're here, and I'm thankful that we're taking the step of not just talking about it here and feeling good about it and then going back home, but we're actually starting to get into action now. I mean, we've got things that are tools here that we're learning about today that I think are gonna help us to take these next steps that our communities really need to take so these tragedies don't occur in the future.

SPEAKER_05 19:07

Great. Thank you. Um so, Tim, I'm gonna throw it back your way. Um what are some areas that that you've seen as you've moved through this space where local leaders who disagree with each other can find ways to do that with through more civil discourse?

Tim Shriver 19:23

Yeah. Well, let me just uh comment briefly on uh Mary Kavanaugh's points because uh the influence of social media, partisan news, and partisan politics, I call it the contempt industrial complex, and it's a two trillion dollar business. And that two trillion dollar business profits from supporting the kind of faceless dehumanization, which are using your language, uh and it's around all of us, it's around our kids, it's around our teachers, it's around our cops, it's we're bombarded with contempt all the time. So to resist that, uh, which is in a way what we're asking you to do, you're we're asking you to be the frontline soldiers in re resisting the power of that business model, honestly, uh, is enormously hard work. I think we have to we have to recognize that it it sounds nice, civility, dignity, all these things, but it's hard work to stand in the face of people who are coming at you with the kind of hostility that has been, I would almost say, artificially elevated. I had, for instance, a political uh governor say to me uh just a few weeks ago, he said, you know, I I want to support what you're doing, but my base wants me to be angry. And I suspect that's true of all of you too. I'm guessing your base, your core supporters, uh the people who are funding, you know, and helping you and are with you and through thick and thin, they're saying, get furious, fight back, meet fire with fire, that kind of messaging. Uh we know that the base is artificially, maybe I shouldn't say it that way, the base is more likely to be angry and contemptuous and dehumanizing than the bulk. Uh we're we have a poll we're releasing next week that says almost over 90% of Americans, this is across the country, want more dignity in political discourse. Uh so let's just say there's social desirability in that number and it's only 75. Or it's only 80, and it's not it's not really 90, they're not telling the truth. But even if it's 75, that's a huge number, but it might not be the number you're hearing from every day. The people on the phone with you are likely saying uh fight back harder. So the the the the the issue here is one of being able to lead from the bulk of your constitu for the bulk of Your constituents, not only for the base. I'm not saying ignore your base. I'm not naive. I know how politics works. I grew up in politics. I understand that the base is important, but if we only curry the favor of the base, we have the situation we have now. And it's not working. It's not working. Violence, I mean, I like to think, you know, how many of us can really affect the war in the Middle East? Probably not many of us. But we can affect the war at home. Okay? This is our job. It is not the job of people in the line of fire in our armed services who we admire and are grateful for and are paying, even as we speak right now, the ultimate sacrifice. But it is our job to do this one. And so we have to kind of choose. And we're seeing this a lot. We've seen this at the governors. You know, we had Governor Kevin Stitt from Oklahoma, Governor Westmore from Maryland, Governor Spencer Cox, Governor Josh Shapiro, Republicans and Democrats, strong Republicans and Democrats. These are not centrist, you know, uh compromisers. These are strong leaders who have made this kind of a commitment to seeing the other person, to talking about their friendship, to publicly taking chances with their base. Each of these, those four gentlemen I just mentioned, by the way, have been punished by their base for being pictured with the person from the other party. Yeah, they use it in ads against them. Look at Cox, he's had his picture taken with Biden. We should throw him out. That kind of stuff. And the other way too, by the way, it's not just Republicans or Democrats. So I think the message here is we need a little more bravery from our public officials. Yeah. And you know, you say to yourself, well, politics is, you know, it's a grown-up business, it's tough, let a, you know, it's not for the faint of heart and all that kind of stuff. Okay, well, that's fine. But our kids are watching. Kids are watching, and our kids are suffering when they watch. I was in Iowa several years ago. I wasn't in Dubuque, I was in uh Des Moines. I did a focus group with a middle school group of kids. Uh and I was asking about bullying because I was trying to explore how kids see this issue of divisiveness and polarization. And I kept asking this girl, I said, Well, but what about bullying in your school? Because yeah, we don't have too much bullying. I said, but when you do have it, do you have teachers? Yeah, yeah, we go to the teachers and they're pretty good about it. I said, but so how do you feel about it? She said, you know, that's the third time you've asked me. She said, we don't have a bullying problem in our school, sir. If you want to find bullies, go look at the adults. Wow. Truth. And that's what changed the course of my career. That one young woman, she said, When I go home and my mom is watching TV, that's where the bullies are. Now that's an eighth grader, 13, 14, 15 years old. She's watching. Our kids are watching. And when they see us behave in a way that dehumanizes others, they become discouraged and they start to give up because they don't have the trust. They don't see the potential for themselves. They don't believe in their country or their city or their town or their mayor. Why should I believe in the mayor when my mom or my dad talks about him or her that way? So we gotta watch ourselves here, and I think we are seeing great examples. We see it right here on the stage, of people who are taking a chance to lead from dignity and civility to be passionate about it. And this is one thing I get asked all the time. Are you telling me to be, you know, a centrist? I don't my my guess is you guys are all in government. You got into government because you believe something strongly, right? Otherwise you would have stayed home and done something else. But you can believe something strongly, you but talk about the programs, the plans, and the policies. Do, if you can, avoid dehumanizing the opponent. When you talk, when you dehumanize the opponent, you make an enemy for your cause. When you talk about the programs and the policies and the plans and the outcomes, you make a case for your position. Make it passionately, make it strongly, make it fiercely, but avoid hatred, and I think you've got a better solution.

SPEAKER_05 26:35

Thank you. Which leads absolutely thanks. And again, which leads me naturally into the next question. Um, Councilmember, um when we when you look at Georgia, you mentioned that uh the State League and had put out um a request, I guess, for cities. And you recognize, of course, as do the rest of us, Georgia is quite a diverse state. So how do the different communities in a c a state like Georgia, how do the different communities make this their own?

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Oh, that's a great question. Um, one thing I want to say um what you said earlier, you're right. It is the leaders of the city who sets the tone for the community, and the community is looking at us to do that. So thank you for saying that on this stage. Thank you for doing it on this platform. That is a good question. I think each there are some differences in each community, of course. And in Lawrenceville, I will say working with staff, they've done a great job of getting out in the community. And that's important. Get out in the community, go in every area of your community and listen. We have listening sessions, and part of that is because of a Recast grant, resiliency in communities after stress and trauma, that's um sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. We have a we have a uh five million dollar grant and for five years and a million dollars each year. And this year it is set to expire. So we are planning to uh continue portions of that grant, and we're looking for resources to continue that. And that grant has helped us go out into the community, to the schools, high schools, colleges, and community at large, to the employers, and talk to the people in the community and get to hear them and let them help you decide, you know, this is what we're looking at. How can we become a better community? And that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_05 28:58

Great, thank you. So, Tim, as you're talking to folks all over, um what's the best advice for local leaders uh to to get them to recognize, yes, this is hard, but it's worth the hard work, and to double down on the F.

Tim Shriver 29:16

Yeah, I mean what's the best case to be made here? Uh I I think that you know there's the emotional case, there's the, if you want to all almost say it, the patriotic case. The country's at risk. Okay, the country's at risk, and the country is not at risk, in my view, because of the marginal tax rate on capital gains. I mean, I'd like it to be higher, some people would like it to be lower. Okay, we can have a discussion about that. But the country is not at risk because of that. In my view, the country's at risk uh because a quarter of us believe that violence is the only way to solve a problem. And the kinds of horrible stories, uh, thank God. By the way, as someone who worked in primary prevention, as a teacher, I was in the prevention work. No one ever takes note of the prevention.

SPEAKER_05 30:06

Yeah.

Tim Shriver 30:07

I'm sorry to say, prevention work is always defined by people not noticing it. Because that's how we that's how we win. That's how those law enforcement officers did their job. They prevented violence, and so therefore everybody's like, what's the big deal? Uh but it's extraordinarily important. But I think, look, we'd like to say there's simple ways to do this. Uh what we call level five in the dignity index is uh is someone who gives equal time. So there's an easy way to say that. Uh, your opinion matters. Try these little things, your opinion matters. If you want to be curious, which is level six in the dignity index, these three words are the most powerful we've heard. Tell me more. Someone screams at you, the like the thing they're least likely to expect you to say is, tell me more. And tell me more immediately indicates for some reason, I don't know the psychology really that deeply on this, it almost immediately and try this with your husband or your wife or your kids. No, you can't. That's going too far. I I agree. I saw a couple people shake their heads, no way, I'm not doing that. But tell me more diffuses the conflict almost immediately. Almost immediately, the person goes, Oh my goodness, you you just asked me. You're curious about what uh the the next level up would be to start by saying, I am looking to understand some some statement of humility. I may not have all the answers, but, and then you state your opinion. But if you say something that is your opinion matters, tell me more, I have humility, almost invariably the conversation shifts to how do we solve this problem? And it shifts away from how dare you speak to me that way. And by the way, where you come from is just as is worse than what you're just you know, all that stuff. It's just ad hominem attacks that it it just stops the stops the process in its tracks. So these are little tricks of the trade we're font we're learning as we do this work in this new issue. Why do it? It was your question, uh, you know, Kevin. I think, look, I think either for your own children, uh, for your country, or for your integrity. Uh if you really believe strongly in the positions you have, which I assume you do, uh, the best way to advance them is to treat the people you disagree with with dignity. Uh if you really just want to make a point and get famous, go with contempt. It'll get you there. And then in the meantime, your issues will be uh uh thwarted.

unknown 32:48

Great.

SPEAKER_05 32:48

Thank you. So um we're towards the end, and I want to end on a positive note. Yeah. So if we could just um pause for a moment um and let's talk about as we look at at what's happening, what gives us hope that things are going to be a little bit different in the not too distant future.

SPEAKER_04 33:09

Well, you talked about being in a you talked about being in a uh a school. I I spent last Friday talking to a group of high school students, and it was uh it's called IJAG Iowa jobs for American graduates. Um a lot of them a number of them are students who are who have struggled in school a bit. Um some of them aren't, but uh a lot of them were. Uh but they they had the most thoughtful conversation with me. And it I was really struck that day walking out of that high school, uh, which was the high school I went to when I was never in a million years thinking I would ever run for anything or be the mayor of the town of the high school I went to. And they uh they just were were so curious and thoughtful and they had very good ideas about their community. They had very good ideas about how to treat each other. I hear the same thing um you know from my kids, who are both high schoolers, that um we don't really have a bullying problem in school. We just we actually get along with each other pretty well, um, which surprises me still to this day, but uh it is it's true. I think it's absolutely true. So I think that um not to be cliche here, but when you do talk to our younger generation and you do have those real conversations with them, not just treating them as kids, but treating them as the future mayor of your town or the future council member or potentially a future president of this country, I think you hear some very good ideas. And I think the more that we have those conversations with people of all ages in our communities, I think the more we're gonna be able to see that that what was it you said, let's go with the 90% of people actually do want to see us treat each other better and just get things done. We just everybody wants us to just get things done.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Wow, great question. What gives us hope? I think for the city of Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville, the path forward is just to continue doing what we're doing, building off the important work of being a city of civility and also working in that recast with the recast program. It gives us in the community, it allows us to continue hearing and like our speaker said, understanding. And you know, understanding the community. Stephen Covey said, first understand, then be understood. So that's um where that's our path forward. That is our hope. Our hope is in, as you said, our our students, our high school students. We have a college in our city, our college students. We go, we have listening sessions all throughout, and those are the the ones who are out there in the community. They love their community, they come to our downtown, and we foster those relationships with our students, and they do give us hope.

Tim Shriver 36:00

Well, it's I mean, to me, uh, I could answer at the political level, but at the personal level, you know, um uh in the Special Olympics movement, we have maybe maybe some of you have this in your schools, we have unified sports teams, which are teams of kids with and without uh intellectual challenges playing on teams together. We have them in about 5,000 schools in this country right now have a boys' basketball team, a girls' basketball team, and a special Olympics unified basketball team. And uh kids are go to an assembly when the unified basketball team is gonna be celebrated. Go to the pep rally, and you'll see a generation of young people who see the dignity of other human beings. You know, they cheer when the boys' team comes in and there's some kid 6'4, and he's gonna go to a Division III school or something, they cheer when the women's team comes in and there's some all-American prospect. And then when the kid who's 4'11 who has Down syndrome comes in, the place goes nuts. That's the goodness of the human spirit, and that's a unique gift that this country has often tried to cultivate at our best. At our worst, it's the opposite. At our best, it's those kids standing up at the Pep Rally by the thousands across this country. And when that kid comes in, seeing that kid is as beautiful, gifted, and important, just like every other kid. And I still think that spirit is strong. I I don't think we see it in our at our at the national level as much. We don't see it on social media as much as we should, but I think it's strong in the country. And you all see it more than any other level of politics and leadership. Tell those stories. That's all people want. That's all people need. They just need a little hope. They just need a little reason to believe in each other, and they'll do it. They'll take a chance. You don't give them any hope, they won't take a chance. So I have a lot of hope based on our young people who are, I think, pioneering a whole new level of dignity in our country that is resonant to the best of our history and capable of creating a great future.

SPEAKER_05 38:20

I want to say a special thanks to the three of you for joining us. Thank you. I think the panel discussion has been awesome.

unknown 38:27

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 38:32

And I want I want to close with uh with a a reminder and a challenge. Um we know that local governments deliver, right? Uh again, we don't we don't get to just stop doing what we did we need to do. I think the other piece of that that sometimes we overlook, we are also the closest to the folks that we serve. In DC, if they pass some piece of legislation, they may or may not talk to anybody from home for months before before they ever interact and even realize what it did. If you pass a piece of legislation on Thursday night, on Friday when you're at the grocery store, somebody's gonna stop you because it's gonna have a direct impact on them. Um we have an opportunity to actually be a person. And I think a big part of this conversation is around the idea of not seeing a person as the person that they are, like dehumanizing them or through social media being anonymous and ignoring them. At the local level, we have we don't have the advantage of having, and we have the opportunity to be the person and to have those conversations. Um I think that goes a long way. So my challenge to each of us then is to take this back home, recognize and understand that because we are so close to the folks that we represent, it really is on us to change the narrative and to start interacting with folks in ways that show that we really do appreciate and respect the dignity of each human person. And a step in that direction is to be deliberate, to go home and look at what is it that we value, what is it that we think is important. We're gonna put that in words and we're gonna post that somewhere, and we're gonna remind ourselves before we start council meetings, this is important to us. We're gonna make sure that when folks come in to speak to us, they read that on the way in and they know this is important to us. So when you go home, we have the dignity index, I'm sorry, we have the dignity pledge that we just did. There are samples of them on the internet all over the place. Cities like um like the council members here, Massity has passed one recently. Um go find one that works for you. Um invite someone to come in and have you have help you have that conversation.

NLC 40:36

So thanks for listening to City Speak with Clarence Anthony. If you like this show, let us know. Share this episode with your friends, and make sure to subscribe. We're curious to hear what you think, what you want more of, and how we can improve. If you have feedback or an idea for a guest you'd like Clarence to sit down with, send us your thoughts at Cityspeak Podcast at nlc.org. Join us next month for a new episode. Like and subscribe here or wherever you get your podcast. See you next time.