A community-based discussion venue called “WW-P Community Forum @ Grover’s Mill Coffee House” invites residents to participate every other Sunday afternoon. The first meeting will be Sunday, September 30, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the coffee house in the Southfield Shopping Center.
The meetings will be moderated by James Ikeda, a graduate of Boston University and lifelong resident of Plainsboro, who submitted the following statement describing the group’s purpose:
There is much talk, but little discussion in the air. One need not even abandon the solitude of one’s own room to be inundated (and upset) by the opinions of others. But it is not simply the volume of thoughts and opinions in the ether which is so monumental, it is the format in which these thoughts and opinions are expressed. The age of blogging offers each and every one of us a megaphone, but no audience. At best we exchange impassioned monologues, as worst we direct our fury at straw man arguments and yell at our unresponsive computer monitors. What is missing is the willingness to listen, to understand other people, to make real, human connections. Our ability to communicate quickly is useless until we learn how to separate ideas from the people who endorse them.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro Community Forum is a small nudge towards the kind of community-oriented, compassionate intellectual culture that (in my opinion anyway) will help bring people closer together. Every other week, Grover’s Mill Coffee House will devote two hours to creating an intellectual safe-space where community members can come to discuss that week’s topic. It is a chance to share disparate viewpoints without the fear of being shouted down, and with the guarantee of being heard. Once we learn that we can get along with the people with whom we disagree, the rest will fall into place.
Each meeting will have a topic. Attendees will engage in a civil, moderated discussion about the topic. Attendees will vote on the next meeting’s topic at the end of each meeting.
First week’s topic: The value (or lack thereof) of democratic participation.
Voter turnout in the United States is quite low, even in presidential elections (according to the census bureau voter turnout in presidential elections as been rising slightly over the last few years but has not exceeded 60 percent since 1968). Why is this? In an election year, few topics are as important.
For more information call 609-716-8771 or visit www.groversmillcoffee.com.
