As conflict grows on campuses and in communities, connection is our best hope.
By Eva Armour, Vishnu Swaminathan
SEEDS OF PEACE is a long-running nonprofit that brings together youth from conflict zones to engage in dialogue and learn leadership skills. Eva Armour is its Chief Impact Officer, and Vishnu Swaminathan is its Chief Operating Officer.
In this time of intense polarization, so many of us are seeking but struggling to find healthy and effective ways to engage colleagues, classmates, or even family on deeply divisive issues — from Israel, Gaza, and campus protests, to abortion and immigration.
We often focus on the arguments without thinking about the part that matters just as much (if not more): how we engage with each other. How we engage conveys our values, sets culture, and can even determine how successful we are at making progress on the issues we care about.
This is particularly true, and also most challenging, when the stakes are high — and when lives are on the line, and we are confronted with horrifying images, it is seemingly impossible. In moments like these, anyone who disagrees with us is not only wrong but fundamentally intolerable. Yet this is when we need to stay most connected to each other’s humanity.
Read the rest of this commentary piece in Rolling Stone ››