Surprises and A Revelation In Mississippi

A brain teaser: What 11-letter word is made up of just 4 letters? You got it! Mississippi!

In May our group of five NYC Dems flew down to Jackson, MS, and met up with three Republicans, plus a neutral moderator. The founder of Braver Angels, Dave Blankenhorn, was with us also; by coincidence he was born and raised in Jackson but now resides in NYC. The first thing I noticed is how different names are down south: Nic, Cade, Starla and Stone vs. our group of Emily, Janice, Steven, Kirk and me, Anne.

I had a wonderful experience there, (eating fried catfish), and again when the MS group visited NYC two weeks later (eating pastrami sandwiches).

Having reasonable, respectful conversations with people having the opposite point of view can be very enlightening. I know I learned from the experience and I like to think I planted a seed that might result in a new perspective on the immigrant situation.

Here’s my new understanding: It revolves around gun control. Most everyone in MS has at least one gun. It is simply part of the culture. From time to time, people upgrade to a bigger and better gun. It’s a lot like buying a new set of golf clubs as your skill grows. Since virtually everyone in MS has a gun and since 99% of the people are not going around killing anyone, Mississippians naturally feel that those few who do shoot someone must have a mental illness. Therefore they believe this is where we should be focusing our attention and money rather than on removing guns. From that perspective, it makes sense. (Now we just have to work together to get money allocated to mental health.)

Here’s the seed I like to think I planted: One night we had a dinner that included some MAGA people. Negative stereotypes of immigrants were tossed around (murderers, rapists, drug dealers). I quietly explained the average New Yorker experience: that we are daily surrounded by people from virtually every country, and these people are just like everyone else. If anything, the immigrants are busy working even harder than others. I then asked if anyone in the room had personally experienced or even witnessed violence by an immigrant, or perhaps were their beliefs just based on scare tactics from politicians trying to control the conservative conversation. No one in the room had any experiences to report. Perhaps they’ll think twice the next time they hear those slanderous words.

I’ve come away from the exchange weekend with even greater respect for the Braver Angels organization. They are seriously committed to their mission of helping the left and right find their way to meaningful conversations.

~ Anne Silverman