Past Items

Items of Interest

IOI070316

Friday, March 16 Dialogue Group 0701-04.

Dialogue Group 0701-04 (fourth session) starts at noon addressing "Hidden Rules" at Fourth Street Baptist Church. See http://homepages.wmich.edu/~ljohnson/Payne.pdf. You are stilll welcome to join these dialogue groups if you wish. Contact Berrien.

Telephone number at the church is 706-324-2055.

Contact: H. Berrien Zettler 706-324-6363

Tuesday, March 20, Dialogue Group 0702-04

Dialogue Group 0702-04 (fourth session) begins at 5:30 pm on Tuesday evening, March 20 at the Holy Family Church. Discussion continues on the "Hidden Rules..

Contact: H. Berrien Zettler 706-324-6363

Monday, March 26, E Pluribus Unum

The second of the E Pluribus Unum series is Monday, March 26 at 7:00 pm. The audience gets a chance to ask questions of the experts about the one document with which we should all be familiar - the Constitution of the United States.

Plan now to attend at the Main Library on Macon Road.

Contact: Max Roth 706-315-4875

Down the Road:

Community Prayer Breakfast April 17, 7:30 am.

The Mayor's Prayer Breakfast idea started in America in 1952 to garner support from the diverse populations for prayer for cities. In Columbus, the Valley Interaction Ministry began Prayer Breakfasts in the late 1980's that brought together similar groups to support the idea.

Beginning with former Mayor Frank Martin who revived the "Mayor's Prayer Breakfast" idea in 1991, subsequent Mayors have supported the idea until, under Mayor Bob Poydasneff, it became the Community Prayer Breakfast. The next Community Prayer Breakfast is Tuesday, April 14, 2007.

Contact: Rosa Stanback 706-689-7277

Here is some food for thought.

· Dialogue is collaborative: two or more sides work together toward common understanding.

Debate is oppositional: two sides oppose each other and attempt to prove each other wrong.

· In dialogue, finding common ground is the goal.

In debate, winning is the goal.

· In dialogue, one listens to the other side(s) in order to understand, find meaning and find agreement.

In debate, one listens to the other side in order to find flaws and to counter its arguments.

· Dialogue enlarges and possibly changes a participants point of view.

Debate affirms a participant's own point of view.

· Dialogue reveals assumptions for re-evaluation.

Debate defends assumptions as truth.

· Dialogue causes introspection on ones own position.

Debate causes critique of the other position.

· Dialogue opens the possibility of reaching a better solution than any of the original solutions.

Debate defends one's own positions as the best solution and excludes other solutions.

· Dialogue creates an open-minded attitude: an openness to being wrong and an openness to change.

Debate creates a close-minded attitude, a determination to be right.

· In dialogue, one submits ones best thinking, knowing that other people's reflections will help improve it rather than destroy it.

In debate, one submits one's best thinking and defends it against challenge to show that it is right.

· Dialogue calls for temporarily suspending one's beliefs.

Debate calls for investing wholeheartedly in one's beliefs.

· In dialogue, one searches for basic agreements.

In debate, one searches for glaring differences.

· In dialogue one searches for strengths in the other positions.

In debate one searches for flaws and weaknesses in the other position.

· Dialogue involves a real concern for the other person and seeks to not alienate or offend.

Debate involves a countering of the other position without focusing on feelings or relationship and often belittles or deprecates the other person.

· Dialogue assumes that many people have pieces of the answer and that together they can put them into a workable solution.

Debate assumes that there is a right answer and that someone has it.

· Dialogue remains open-ended.

Debate implies a conclusion.

Adapted from a paper prepared by Shelley Berman, which was based on discussions of the Dialogue Group of the Boston Chapter of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR).