Some 35 people, mostly residents of Brookfield, got together on a nice summer Saturday evening, July 18, in the beer garden at Irish Times to meet new people and talk about politics, their lives and whatever else came up.
The program called One Small Step was created by StoryCorps, a nonprofit which organizes and produces conversations of people talking to each other, some of which appear on National Public Radio. The One Small Step initiative is designed to promote dialogue and understanding across the political divide. This event was sponsored locally by the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Public Library with the assistance of a $10,000 grant from the Carnagie Corporation of New York.
The people were randomly paired, most often in groups of two. The people didn’t know each other but the conversations were guided by a deck of cards with printed questions such as “[C]ould you briefly describe, in your own words, your personal political values?”
However, with a few exceptions, many of the conversations ended up being among people who had similar political beliefs and the conversations often shifted to personal topics as people got talking more.
“We completely agreed on everything,” Zak Knott said of his conversation with Daphne Callen. “It was maybe not the intended conversation of the evening, there was no disagreement, no learning about another perspective. It was a very easy conversation to have. We had a very nice time.”
Callen, who moved to Brookfield four years ago, agreed but said that it was nice to meet someone she probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.
“It was nice to meet someone that I didn’t already know,” Callen said.
Kathleen Robson was one of the few participants who had a conservative perspective but she said afterwards that she was kind of uncomfortable talking about politics too directly but said that her partner probably understood Robson’s perspective when Robson told her that she opposed abortion.
“She probably figured out where I was coming from but I tried to stay more generic,” Robson said.
Robson didn’t realize that political views were meant to be a focus on the conversations.
“I enjoyed it, I got to know a lady that I never met before, it was nice” Robson said. “I was surprised how political the different cards were. I wasn’t expecting that.”
At another table a woman who is Jewish and asked not to be identified by name because she feared being identified as Jewish in today’s environment shared her perspective on how the events of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and all the death and conflict that resulted from Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip has affected her. She said that she felt she gave her tablemates a perspective that they might not have heard before.
“I had a perspective that no one else at the table had,” the woman said.
Jonathan Ellison agreed that the woman offered a different perspective.
“One of the women at our table was talking about the experience being an Ashkenazi Jew through the Oct. 7 attacks,” Ellison said. “That’s a really hot button political topic but she was talking about herself.”
But many of the conversations drifted away from politics.
Ellison enjoyed his conversation with Joyce Zuke as well as with the others who joined his table later in the evening.
“It was just a really enjoyable experience to meet and talk to somebody that I never met before,” Elison said.
Zuke agreed.
“I think it’s always nice to listen to someone’s views,” Zuke said. “It was interesting to see the variety of people.”
Others who had hoped to talk to people with different political views said that the conversations turned out to be fun and interesting even if the experience was a little different from what they had expected.
“I came to get a variety of demographics to talk to but that hasn’t been the case but it turned out OK,” said Greg Gallier.
Scott Braam, the library staffer who helped organize the event, said that he wasn’t surprised that most of the people who came to the event leaned liberal.
“I think it was really hard to find people who are ideologically diverse,” said Braam who is also an adjunct professor of political science and urban politics at Elmhurst University.
Braam said, and the people at the event seemed to agree, that there is great value in just getting strangers to sit down and talk to each other face to face in today’s increasingly digital and online world.
“People need to talk again,” Braam said. It’s a listening exercise more than anything. It’s not supposed to be a debate; it’s supposed to be a conversation.
People enjoyed connecting and getting to know each other.
“I really enjoyed tonight,” said 29-year-old Jenny Roberts who was paired with Gonzo Schexnayder. “The conversations I had were definitely eye opening. I felt like I was able to find common ground with people I didn’t know previously. I feel like I’m building a bigger community in Brookfield by doing an event like this.”
Roberts said that it was easy to talk to Schexnayder.
“The conversation flowed, it was very easy,” Roberts said. “I was surprised how easy it was to talk to people I never met before, had a different background, different upbringing. It was great.”
Schexnayder, 62, agreed.
“It was fun, I like meeting new people,” Schexnayder said.
Schexnayder and Roberts both are left of center politically, Roberts considers herself a democratic socialist and Schexnayder said that he is democratic socialist liberal Democrat.
“We aligned very similarly,” Roberts said.
They bonded over both having relatives with very different political views than their own.
Schexnayder, who has lived in the area for about 20 years, used his local knowledge to offer some advice to relative newcomer Roberts, who just moved to Brookfield about two years ago. When Roberts told Schexnayder that she had a background and interest in theater he suggested that she get involved with the Theater of Western Springs.
This was the second One Small Step program sponsored by the library. The first one was held at the library in April. The library is planning to sponsor another One Small Step conversation in the fall.