La Crosse’s community discussion group “.Be.” lead residents in conversation regarding the United States’ divided nation Thursday, February 9th at Hackberry’s Bistro. Walking into the open room, participants were instantly prompted to write their names on a name tag. This set a welcoming atmosphere from the start and showed that the meeting was so much more than a speech about American politics. It was a group of residents coming together to share a meal, and to learn how to engage in active conversation while still respecting those whose viewpoints do not align with their own.

Frequent meeting attendee, Courtney Lokken, stated that .Be. “creates a safe environment for people to come together and talk about tough topics.”  Further explaining that the gatherings tend to be less political, and more philosophical. .Be. puts forth the hopeful ‘what if’ questions and aims to build optimism within the community.

.Be. had invited Yale graduate, Sam Scinta, to start off the night. Heavily involved in the La Crosse community, Scinta manages writing programs at local high schools as well as lectures at Viterbo and  UW-L. His education focuses on political theory and American government truly shined in the delivery of his speech at the Bistro. Scinta spoke about the passion of his goals for residents to build mutual respect for one another, and to find common values through active citizenship. “‘We’ is the most important word in American politics… and we’ve lost common interest in society,” he spoke regarding our nations current state.

“I don’t think its ever bad for people to be engaging in these conversations,” La Crosse native Emily Tope shared her experiences coming to the .Be. meetings. And this was exactly what occurred—participants broke into randomized small groups, and had the chance to engage closely with one another in guided conversation.

Individuals were asked questions such as, “has this recent election broken or rebuilt any relationships in your life?” or “what can we do as a community to move forward?” The six others passed ideas and compromised on various topics. In one small group, there was a woman from Jerusalem and a woman from Nicaragua. The experiences of these two women put a spin on the group’s conversation. This led to brainstorming ways on how to unite as a community and a nation, the main concept being to get out and meet new people.

“When we make people abstract, we turn strangers into enemies. However, when we make them concrete, strangers become friends,” key note speaker of .Be. proposed to the room. Creating name tags at the start of this event encouraged a concrete view of the people around us. Getting to know one another as individuals, and not as differing political agendas seemed to make the conversations genuine. It was recommended that this sincerity is one UW-L’s campus may need to work towards. The .Be. group is set to meet again in April.