Creating common ground podcast (app. one hour)
In Perspective 151 – Peter Altschul Talks About Creating Common Ground
The Elephant and Its Rider
https://www.peteraltschul.com/the-elephant-and-its-rider -2/
Channeling
Rubber Band Rhetoric
Trending Towards Trust
The Trash-Trust Disconnect
My experience conducting dialogues between pro-choice and pro-life activists in the late 1990s reminded me that there is often more variability within groups than between groups.
I heard pro-choice activists acknowledging that abortion destroys human lives. I heard pro-life activists argue about the value and morality of contraception. I heard women identifying themselves as pro-choice say that while they supported a woman’s right to choose, they didn’t think they could go through with an abortion themselves. I heard about…..
“Hi, this is Peter,” I announced after dialing into a business conference call at 9 AM on the day after Thanksgiving.
“I’m sorry,” said one of the participants with whom I had worked several years ago, “we were talking about the best part of the Thanksgiving feast.”
“That’s easy!” I proclaimed without thinking. “Turkey legs.”
“I’m not sure I agree,” said the other woman with an unfamiliar voice.
“Oh no, they’re definitely the best,” I said, and launched into a…..
“Good afternoon, fellow service dogs and human slaves,” rumbled Ace, the president of Service Dogs of America from a sumptuous dog house surrounded by big trees and a large lake. “Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to hear me speak.”
“Just keep it short,” grumbled black Lab Guide dog Heath from a house he shared with Hunter, a multicolored standard poodle. “Lots of food to steal.”
“As we enter the constellation of end-of-year human holidays,” Ace…..
My first connection with a major solar eclipse took place on a Saturday afternoon when I was in seventh grade. I was taking part in a local program aimed at teaching daily living skills to adolescents who were blind. News of the eclipse only came from the radio in the kitchen from which the DJ regularly announced that it was getting dark because of the eclipse.
“Duh,” I thought.
Several replays of George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun” heralded the…..
(The lyrics throughout this post are excerpted from the Grateful Dead’s “Throwing Stones.”)
“Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free Dizzy with eternity. Paint it with a skin of sky, brush in some clouds and sea Call it home for you and me. A peaceful place or so it looks from space A closer look reveals the human race. Full of hope, full of grace, is the human face.”
The more radical environmentalists foresee a grim future if…..