Listening, learning and working together: We’re indebted to those who participated

As Beth Baranski says, “Water use and water quality issues can be controversial” and yet, we’re “in the same boat.”

In our history as a participatory democracy, working through controversial issues may seem more like being in different boats, competing ones at that, with passengers firing accusations about others’ motives, defensively vying to maintain rigid positions and being quite sure those in the other boat can’t be trusted. There may be a lot of fury and noise but not much cooperation or collaboration in “charting a common course forward.”

In a democracy, just how do we develop trust in one another? How do we work together to identify, work for and reach common goals or solutions to our mutual problems?

Many of the women and men who worked to amend our Constitution to abolish slavery, to provide equal protection under the law for all citizens, and to establish universal suffrage were Quakers. They encouraged their fellow social activists to use the Quaker tradition of reaching consensus. Today’s American Friends Service website describes that Quaker decision-making process like this: Grounded in the belief that when several people come together to labor in the Spirit, they can discern a truth that exceeds the reach of any one individual. In making decisions, Friends do not simply vote to determine the majority view, but rather they seek unity about the wisest course of action. Over time Friends have developed ways to conduct meetings that nurture and support this corporate discernment process. Since its inception 100 years ago on the eve of the ratification of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing the right of women to vote, the League of Women Voters has encouraged and demonstrated this Quaker-inspired process. To this day the LWV practices a formal consensus process to develop its stands on issues and to discern the “wisest courses of action.”

The Friends website goes on to say, “To be effective, the Quaker process requires that everyone come ready to participate fully by sharing their experiences and knowledge, by listening respectfully to the experiences and knowledge brought by others, and by remaining open to new insights and ideas.”

As we in the LWV-Jo Daviess County reflect on Beth’s description of “the League’s water resource management efforts during this past decade,” we applaud the dozens of citizens she referenced who did come ready to participate and who shared their unique experiences and knowledge.

We are indebted to those who patiently, courteously, and graciously participated in this process that has allowed us to respectfully listen to one another and which continues to help us be open to ever-growing insights and ideas.

Next time we’ll share how we believe the process has been effective in helping us face and fix some of the water problems before us.