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Cinema Arts Center Partners with Crossing Party Lines
In keeping with our long history of offering programs to unite, inspire, educate, mobilize, and create empathy in a world where empathy is greatly needed, Cinema Arts Centre is excited to announce its partnership with Crossing Party Lines (CPL); a non-profit organization that facilitates conversations between people of varied political persuasions.
Crossing Party Lines has been hosting conversations and other events that allow Americans to meet and get to know their “political other” since 2016. They see our rich diversity of race, culture, and perspectives not as a problem to be solved but as core strength to be leveraged for the betterment of our country. According to founders Lisa Swallow and Kareem Abdelsadek, the problem is not that we disagree, but that we’ve forgotten how to disagree productively.
But how? We are increasingly living among like-minded people in our own “ideological bubble” leaving us with very few opportunities to reclaim that skill. Friends and families across the country have cut off relations with each other. In the media, we see experts and pundits talking “at” each other, not the open-minded debate we need. And thanks to the World Wide Web, we choose our facts based on our opinions.
We are losing the “common story” that is integral to the functioning of any community. What we need is a national period of counseling; a genuine & heart-felt attempt at rebuilding empathy between people with different political persuasions. The only way this can happen is if we STOP TALKING AND START LISTENING - to the “other side” and to our hearts. This takes courage and skill.
This is where Crossing Party Line comes in. Through workshops and moderated conversations, CPL teaches us how to stay calm & cool when hearing views that disturb us, how to view an issue from multiple perspectives, to find shared facts, and to share our views in a way that encourages curiosity. They provide guardrails for conversations, keeping them civil and safe for everyone. CPL members learn the skills we need to share our hopes & fears in a way that doesn’t threaten others and to genuinely listen to the fears & hopes of the “other side”.
No problem can be solved in a society (and world) that dehumanizes "the other", and no problem is too big for one that has decided to put its differences aside to rise to the challenge. As Americans, we have proved time and time again that we can rise to the challenge with courage and hope. Here at CAC, we have the opportunity to rise to the challenge of bridging our differences, and YOU can be part of this movement with us. It is our hope that through CPL conversations we will discover/remember the common humanity we share with our friends and neighbors who happen to hold different political views than our own. From that shared sense of humanity, with malice toward none and with charity for all, we can once again be part of a culture of trust, not contempt.
Cinema Arts Centre is proud to be the home for CPL's new Long Island Chapter. Along with moderated conversations, CPL will be offering you a chance to be part of their upcoming video series “Choose Hope” curated by Long Island resident and filmmaker Swati Srivastava (Director of Visual Media at CPL), and will also be screening documentaries and films that celebrate Americans who are already successfully connecting across differences to address their communities’ most pressing problems. The first CPL conversation will be held in February at the Cinema Arts Center. CPL will announce the dates soon. Meanwhile, please join the movement of rebuilding America by signing up to the Meetup Group at https://www.meetup.com/crossing-party-lines-ny-long-island/
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