Introducing: Community Roundtables
BY Kevin J. Rogers | Executive Director
Community is a core value of the Modern Whigs. After all, we are a community ourselves, united in principle but independent in thought.
But in broader terms, we believe the health of our nation is ultimately, and maybe even wholly, dependent on the health of the communities which form its true foundation. Where we live our everyday lives matters most. It is on the streets we share where we set the tone of American life.
Which brings us to our latest innovation at the Institute: Community Roundtables — our own digital town square, right where you live.
Up to now, we’ve only had one kind of Roundtable, committed to our formal methodology for developing public policy. They have been focused on a specific issue – taxes, health insurance, etc. – and followed a specific process in order to produce concrete policy proposals.
Community Roundtables are different. For one thing, they’re much less formal than our original Roundtables (which we now call Leadership Roundtables). There’s no set structure, no required methodology, no established hierarchy and no obligation to produce anything; the members of a Community Roundtable can treat it as they choose.
The biggest difference, however, is in focus. Community Roundtables are created to serve a particular geographic location. Their primary purpose is to center on local matters and be a safe haven for members of the Institute to talk about the significant (or not so significant) issues of interest in the places where they live, free of the static and noise of social media.
So, while Leadership Roundtables are issue-specific, Community Roundtables are place-specific. The geographic range is up to the members of the Community Roundtable itself; while the intent is to engage at the most local level, it’s perfectly acceptable to place the emphasis on a county, state or region.
And there are no limits to the number of Roundtables a member can participate in, other than their own time and level of involvement. So, you can be in one Community Roundtable dedicated to your local school board, and another where the subject is state government, and yet another where the purpose is to serve as a sounding board for town affairs.
As with Leadership Roundtables, we host Community Roundtables on our members-only Forums. For details, check out that section of our website: Roundtables Info — Modern Whig Institute
One final note: All of us are certainly aware of the apparent deep polarization of our country, and the often-savage level of debate – if we can call it that – on Twitter, Facebook and in the national media. It can often seem there are now two Americas, one red and one blue, with little in common besides a habit of talking past each other and an inclination to see the other as an enemy.
We are all also aware, or should be, of the malign foreign powers who inflame and exacerbate our social and political divisions in an effort to weaken us. They know our strength is our unity; an America committed to a common purpose cannot be defeated. They need to pit us against each other. And they are often aided and abetted by figures among our own people who leverage foreign subversion in order to create an income for themselves.
Our best defense is to treat each other as people rather than objects: as friends and neighbors who share the same concerns, ambitions, fears and joys. We must feed our better angels. We must see ourselves in each other again.
Our hope is Community Roundtables will, in some small way, help us to remember who we are.
Of course, the more people who participate the greater the effect will be. Our growth-oriented goals at the Institute all have to do with being in a better position to serve our country and our People. And just as the first European settlers to the New World brought their traditions with them, but built their communities from scratch, we too carry our traditions forward while building our endeavor as we go.
We hope you will join us.
Kevin J. Rogers is the executive director of the Modern Whig Institute. He can be reached at director@modernwhig.org.
