What changed? How we react?

From the 101 Moodle Page

 Today in class, after the group presentation on the Lion's Club, voluntary associations, and democracy, we had 20 minutes and everyone had something they longed to say.  We only had 20 minutes and the chairs were atypically lined up in rows so that no one had to, or could, look each other in the eye.  Nonetheless we began a group discussion of bin Laden's death and responses to it.  Here is a short list of my reactions and thoughts.

1. The multiple requests for class time for a public discussion is a sign that the program is doing what we want it to do.  Perhaps even the blogs contributed as students were reading each others and so know something of the range of responses.
2. I'm grateful that the group has that range of responses, that it represents something of the range of views in the nation rather than being an enclave of a single position.  I'm grateful not merely for the representativeness, but because of the potential for speaking across disagreement toward constructive citizenship not only in this classroom or on this campus, but in the years after graduation.
3. As I said in class, listening to the few students who were able to speak in the short time we had, I was increasingly aware of the importance of breaking the discussion down into some smaller topics.  This may allow identification of points of agreement as well as disagreement.  I think we have no anti-Americans in the room, for example, no one eager to overthrow the American government.  Asking what was accomplished allows for a more dispassionate conversation than assertions of emotional responses and may help to account for the emotions.
4. I'm wondering if putting this conversation next to our consideration of Black Elk and "Progress of Empire" might give us a useful perspective and help identify the alternative positions that are behind the more emotive, evaluative responses.  Perhaps what I'm musing about here is how to approach the death of bin Laden as a dense fact rather than as a single, if historic, event.
5. Finally, I was struck by the vital importance of clinging to humane regard to real people and sharing moments of joy that provide a larger context for discussion of potentially divisive issues.  Here I refer again to Krista Tippet's On Being interview with K A Appiah "Sidling up to Difference."