“Resolved: The Oregon Rural-Urban Divide is Insurmountable.”

Got any thoughts on that topic?

If so, you may want to consider participating — or maybe just listening to — a statewide online debate planned for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12.

The subtitle for the debate lays out the resolution in greater detail:

“Given differences in rural and urban Oregonians’ relationships to the land, and their lifestyles, values and political representation, is it possible today for both sides to accommodate the other’s cultural, economic and political interests and priorities?”

The event is organized by the Oregon branch of Braver Angels, a national nonprofit organization with the goal of unifying a divided nation in part by building new ways for Americans to talk to each other — and, just as important, how to listen to each other.

So, unlike the high school debates you might be familiar with, the goal of this debate isn’t to determine a winner. The goal isn’t even to change anybody’s mind. Rather, the idea is to provide a format that welcomes a range of perspectives and ideas — from rural and urban Oregonians alike — in a format that’s intended to encourage respectful listening and sincere communication.

Oregon volunteers with Braver Angels have been pondering the rural-urban divide for a few years now. In 2021, the Southern Oregon chapter of the branch founded the Oregon Rural/Urban Project, with Portland residents and rural residents alike joining the effort. Elizabeth Christensen of Braver Angels said the topic was an obvious choice for a statewide debate.

“We feel this is a really big issue that’s foundational to a lot of the other political divides that we face around the nation,” Christensen said. “And that’s why we’ve chosen to attack this.”

“Rural folks do not feel heard or included in the government at all,” she said. “So we would like to give them a voice and a listening ear.”

Steve Radcliffe, another Braver Angels volunteer, said the rural-urban divide is reflected in efforts such as Greater Idaho, the movement to realign rural Oregon counties so that they become part of Idaho.

The divide seems like a big topic to tackle, but Christensen and Radcliffe welcome the challenge.

“We have to start somewhere,” Christensen said, “because we have identified a large rural resentment at not being able to speak. So I think the first order of business is to give them (rural residents) the platform to speak.”

In fact, with the way the debate topic is written, the first speaker selected by moderator Cynthia O’Brien, a Portland resident who also serves as a Braver Angels national debate chair, will be defending the resolution that the divide is insurmountable.

But O’Brien and other debate workers also will select other speakers, who will alternate speaking against and for the resolution.

Again, the goal is not to win the debate. It’s to provide a forum where people on all sides of the topic can speak — and can feel that they’re being listened to.

In this polarized county, Radcliffe said, “we’ve gotten ourselves into this condition where we can’t talk to each other or listen to each other. But if you can sit down together and have a sincere, respectful discussion, where you actually listen to one another, we have a better-than-even chance of making progress on whatever you’re talking about. But if you can’t do that, you’re dead in the water.”

The debate will be recorded, and a written report including issues raised during the event will be made available to all participants afterward.

But hopes are that the debate is just the first phase of the project.

Statewide workshops

In the weeks and months after the debate, Braver Angels members hope to organize a series of workshops throughout the state to address the issues identified.

Ideally, the goal would be to do one workshop in every county in Oregon — but that goal hinges on lining up sufficient funding. And it’s a big lift, Christensen said: After all, it took Gov. Tina Kotek a full year to visit all 36 Oregon counties in her One Oregon Listening Tour, “and she was very focused on that. … But we are motivated to do our very best.”

Foundations have expressed early interest in the workshops, the two said, but no formal agreements have been reached yet.

Issues raised in the debate would help shape the structure of the county workshops.

“From the debate, we want to know the issues that are involved so that when we go into a county, we’re talking about things that matter to them,” Christensen said.

But Radcliffe emphasized that the workshops, like the debate, would not be designed to change anyone’s mind.

The workshop organizers, he said, “do not want to appear as outsiders coming into any community where we don’t live and ‘fixing’ people. That is not our intention. We are not out to change anybody’s mind about anything. I just want them all to play nicely in the same sandbox.”

The Braver Angels online debate on the rural-urban divide is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12. It’s free. To sign up for the debate, go to this website: bit.ly/3PU0Ii4

Among the questions you’ll answer in the registration process is one about how willing you would be to speak during the debate. You’ll also be asked whether you identify more as a rural or an urban resident of Oregon and the extent to which you agree with the proposition.

People can sign up to listen to the debate until just a few minutes before it starts. But organizers suggested that people interested in speaking at the debate sign up as early as possible.