Please provide any comments about your experience at this event. In your response, you might consider these questions: What was effective? What part of the event engaged you the most? What was less effective? What might have been done differently? What was your most significant learning from this event?  

​

1. Thank you organizers of these forums. I watched on zoom and was disappointed I couldn’t see the audience but I could hear them. I don’t understand the one woman’s criticism about the information share by the LCC teacher. I thought it was unbiased and informative.

2. I find the "messiness" of these forums valuable when it comes to the differing ideas, positions, and solutions as it creates new paths of thought, greater opportunities to creatively solve issues together, and more compassionate and discerning ways of being and interacting with others that would not blossom otherwise without that friction necessary for growth. This allows us to have greater horizons of choice, exploration, and experimentation. What these dialogues have reminded me is that we have so much more in common than we might believe. As we sit here, we have to face the humanity of others, to hear them, to potentially sit in our discomfort in our differences and then realize we see ourselves in them, instead of keeping our eyes forward and taking the "easier" way of denouncing people, making them binary, or placing a single label on them. I believe people participate in their society when they feel included in that society. How do we do that? That's why I believe these forums are great for. I believe in us. I have hope for us. I believe we can strive for excellence and come together. We are capable as human beings!

3. So enjoyed listening to everyone. Again professor Strayer added useful information about social media and how it contributes to incivility!

4. I’ve attended or watched each forum, some the audience comments at this last one was disappointing. Hope you will continue this project with even more important topics. Thank you!

5. Of a "how to" be civil in disagreements. Kids get the education, maybe the adults need a refresher - Michel Strayer? I was nice to hear from the community today. Let's do this with a topic again without a panel that takes the whole time.

6. Gun violence, gun control, school shootings - because it could happen here!!! What does Strayer have to say about all this?

7. I think there were comments/questions from the zoom viewers, but the online screen showed 5 comments/questions in the zoom Q&A.

8. SICK! (In reference to question #3 "Do you identify as a Woman, Man, or some other way?" Everyone was respectful. Children need to learn the 3 R's, history, science, etc., and do away with CRT, SEL, etc. No sex garbage needs to be taught or discussed at school- - - only at home. Let our kids be "normal."

9. I enjoyed the first four forums more than this last one. Let audience ask questions but restrict comments or limit them.

10. This session was the best, hearing various points of view. Recommend podcast - Brian McClary (McClarian?) Can't model if we don't lay out precepts we're trying to model.

11. I like the effort to civilize communication. I disagree with the comment made that there needed to be more robust discussion and disagreement. It is my observation that the higher the temperature the lower the listening. Secondly, I think there should be more facts presented. As I listened to some of the people they made statements with no factual basis. It may be good to quote sources when referring information.

12. This was a great opportunity to listen. I especially like the PowerPoints and social media information.

13. "Disgusting question!" (A reference to question #3 "Do you identify as a Woman, Man, or some other way?"

14. Who the hell was the woman who criticized the forum, as she said this was the first one she had attended. She was offended? I was offended by her remarks as I attended each forum. Thanks to all of you that did this for our community!!!

15. When will you do this again?

16. This event from this point of view is/was totally worthless, and reeked of GROUP THINK "a la" Cowlitz Founding Fathers Governing Doctrines IGNORANT!

17. Great job from everyone of the organizers, Warning as moderator, Strayer as the college resource and all the others. Thank you for doing this series.

18. This was an excellent introductory series, but needs to continue into techniques and addressing problems in a civil way. Invite some SMELT, perhaps. (Reference to the LCC Debate team “The Fighting Smelt.”)

19. Thank you Old White Guys for your contribution to our community!

20. Just like the rest of this series, I greatly enjoyed this final forum. I cannot emphasize enough that this series needs to continue. It has my utmost support!

21. Michael Strayer, as always, is an incredible speaker, a fountain of knowledge, and has the profound ability to reach most people, regardless of political affiliation (emphasis on most, as a roll my eyes). In all seriousness, his last comments in the initial opening were drop mic worthy! I slow clapped when I was livestreaming at home!

22. My immediate biases aside, I enjoyed, respect, and agree with many of the comments and points of view that were presented by the audience that night.

23. As mentioned in a previous reply, I sincerely appreciate and welcome the opportunity for varying sides of the political divide to have a roundtable discussion about a given topic. Perhaps this might not be the format for every forum, but I still say that this is a great idea worth looking into implementing. My only additional question would be how these people would be selected. Would they just be from the general population to offer a heterogenous array of professions, or would they be experts and/or specialists that work within the confines of a given topic?

24. Perhaps it was due to a limit on time, but I thought it was a bit odd that none of the Zoom questions, including my own were addressed. Perhaps the audience just took up the bulk of the time with retorts and insight? Furthermore, when I was livestreaming via Zoom, I could only see my question posed and only discovered that other people sent virtual questions after hearing about it in one of the responses. I will admit, I am still becoming adept with Zoom, so maybe it’s on me, but I found it odd that none of the other questions appeared in the Q&A selection.

25. I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciated the young woman who brought up Brian McClaren’s podcast! I have been binging it and have almost listened to the entire first two seasons! It’s a phenomenal series that I also recommend to everyone! As an additional note, I also highly recommend Alan Alda’s Clear and Vivid podcast. Alda is a gem, just as much as he was on M*A*S*H and in Scientific American Frontiers (to name only two things in his vast filmography) and he has a myriad of guests that join him on his program with the emphasis to initiate conversations on how to connect and to communicate with others. There’s a barrage of topics and guests, many of which do relate to socio-political, scientific, philosophical, and other constructs. I have listened to nearly every one of his episodes and always have something to take away from each session. The same sequence of seven quick questions on communication that he asks at the very end of the program are so incredibly insightful! Both in reference to the interviewee’s answers and allowing the listener to soak up those replies like a sponge and contemplate on what their own answers might be and why.

26. I also applaud the remark that parents need to be more proactive in the lives of their children. I’m sorry, as someone who works within a local school district, and has a mother who has taught for over twenty years, it is a consistent fact that parents expect the school systems to raise their children and do not give teachers support in return. The school districts are not a free babysitting service that also branders your children with all the life skills they require. A lot of it needs to be cultivated and nourished at home. I do not target this specifically at people who are single parents, and families that are just trying to make ends meet. These people often strive so hard to give the children the very best that they can provide, and I applaud them for trying hard every day. But if you’re just going to be the scarily more commonplace, stereotypical, middle-class parent that just doesn’t want to parent and yet berate teachers when your child has academic and behavioral shortcomings (i.e. a “Karen”), you have no one to blame but yourself. You are the problem and are hindering your child’s ability to blossom and you are making the lives of the teachers and other staff within a school district even more crippling.

27. There were so many other people whose two cents were so insightful and engaging as well. The woman who bravely came forward to say that she was/is viewed as a “nobody” and the everyday occurrences that she sees by so many people suffering, truly broke my heart. She was so strong in her convictions and yet had a gentleness to her that just made your heart bleed for her! She was truly a blessing to listen to, and I would really like her to know that. She is somebody, as we all are. I also applaud the efforts of the young man who brought up the political correctness paradox! I would love for that to just be a source of discussion! Whomever that was, I salute you, good sir! The emphasis to have more female, LGBTQ+, younger people, and racial variations in the forums would also bring a greater form of representation from a wider population. Especially since some of the responses were repulsed by the gender identification question, I think that it is even more crucial that we have representation from people from the LGBTQ+ community to bridge that disconnect. To have a real discussion of what the term “gender” really means and see that these are people who deserve love and acceptance just like anyone else.

28. Despite my overall satisfaction with this forum though, I do have to bring up one thing that really bothered me. I am sorry, but other people have brought it up as well. I was so disgusted by that woman's, viewpoint on these forums perpetuating “left-wing biases” and not representing and showing "Conservative values", and in doing so, alienating Conservatives from showing up for future forums. Let it be clear, I am not intending to objectify her as "that woman”. I simply do not know her name, and it doesn't really matter in the broader context of this discussion.

29. Like many people’s thoughts, things were kept neutral throughout all these forums. All the information provided in these forums were succinct and had factual evidence to support them. Extraordinarily little of it was anecdotal, and the few times they were, the intention was to the validate the points of discussion. Furthermore, her concept of "Conservative values", which were predicated by her viewpoint on political correctness were so superficial, and blasphemous. This just furthers the point home that we need to look beyond our own personal viewpoints and let down our barriers a bit to learning something from a different point of view. Seriously, I went through all the previous forums, just to be fair, and none of them leaned towards any specific political affiliation. This just sounds like someone who is insecure in her viewpoints, and just wants to have them reinforced as the Gospel truth. Or was she was looking for “alternative facts”? Oh, and she said this was the first forum she was attending? Hmmm….. Suspicious…. Anyone who gets that meme reference, you are impressive! This just goes to show that everything she is mentioning is purely by inference and not from personal experience.

30. Plus, anyone who accuses Michael Strayer of “promoting an agenda” and “silencing people’s voices”..…. And it was for this reason, that the numbers in attendees dropped?!......I am sorry, what?! He did not put down anyone’s beliefs or viewpoints in that first session, because here is the kicker, he did not speak at the first forum! Furthermore, the individual who did speak at the first forum did not put down anyone’s beliefs or values either. He was simply reiterating what is the common jargon and mindset within a particular group of Conservative people. He did not go into a raging fit of putting people down for their personal beliefs or political leniencies! Finally, all the statistics Michael and the rest of this committee have gathered from the previous sessions, which this woman also did not attend and/or view online, were unfiltered and not cherry picked to suit any specific agenda. Someone can go on the website and see this for themselves! May I reference the disdain that numerous comments had towards people on drugs and those that are houseless, the disregard for environmental regulations to save the planet, and the blatant disgust that people had for the gender binary question? Smells like Conservatism to me! I am sorry, I am not trying to attack this woman, but these claims are ridiculous!

31. I know that what Michael mentioned at the beginning of this forum is important, regarding having anger towards another that disagrees with you only concretes them further in their viewpoints. I know I am being hypocritical here, but it is not right to just blatantly give out misinformation either! This is the kind of rhetoric that the committee is trying to prevent from propagating in the general population! And, at the end of the day, this does not impact the overall view I have towards these forums, but it obviously bothered me if I went to the trouble of rewatching every forum and am on my fourth paragraph about this matter.
    With all that being said, let us end things on a positive note. I am eternally grateful, and cannot emphasize enough, how much I appreciate this committee’s dedication and arduous work to have these open discussions and to start getting people to at least contemplate on the need for civility in our everyday lives. It has been something that we have slowly been losing over the course of decades, and only in the last ten years or so, has it really started to show. I am so glad that we can start picking up the pieces, and learn to agree to disagree, enlighten people by pulling them out of the shadows of misinformation, and with any hope, work towards a more beautiful tomorrow for us all. Thank you to all of those who have been a part of this project, and may it continue to prosper. I cannot wait for the equivalent of Season Two, and I will be ready to partake in more when it premiers!