The Common~Conversation

Our Mission

The election of 2016 showed that "we the people" are deeply divided:  red-blue, right-left, urban-rural, coastal-midwestern, old economy-new economy, white-nonwhite, male-female, older-younger, education level, class, race, and a dozen other ways.  We are also increasingly trapped in technological echo chambers, hearing only the voices and views of people "like us,” and often at high decibels. But the 2016 election also surfaced a yearning to move past the divisions.  Even as millions of people shouted at each other across barricades, at least as many seemed to want the "American family" to come together again. 

The Common~Conversation is founded as a place to facilitate and further that conversation.  The founders have a point of view, and we will not shy away from expressing it.  But we will strive for, and insist on, three things, from ourselves and our contributors, and we will encourage these same qualities in our readers:  an open mind, thoughtful commentary, and civil, constructive discourse. 

As we listen to each other and reflect on other voices and viewpoints, our thinking will evolve.  But that’s the point of a conversation, isn’t it?  It’s a conversation that, we suspect, will also lead to the discovery of more common sense and common ground – a common conversation.

          Rod Howard, Publisher
          November 2016