Groups invite Georgetown to find shared values through tough conversation

Participants in an upcoming “tough conversation” will work to find common ground while discussing ways to stop and prevent future mass shootings.

Sponsored by the Georgetown Ministerial Alliance, Courageous Conversations and the Georgetown Police Department, the open forum will be held from 6:30-8 p.m., October 20, at the Georgetown Public Library. Anyone with a stake in “keeping Georgetown safe” can participate, said Sharolyn Browning, transitional pastor at Christ Lutheran Church.

“This will be a balcony-level discussion of how we should protect each other,” Ms. Browning said. “As a society, people tend to dig in on polar sides of an issue, when the solution is to find common ground.”

To find common ground, she said the conversation will follow a format used by the Baylor University Public Deliberation Initiative, which engages individuals in collaborative decision-making.

“No one wants mass shootings, but as a society, we have not yet tackled how to prevent them,” Ms. Browning said. “There’s no perfect solution, no single approach will be successful in stopping the violence. It will take a convergence of values for a community to begin tackling this hard issue.”

Participants will meet in small groups and discuss three options to stop mass shootings:

• Reducing the threat.

• Equipping people to defend themselves.

• Rooting out violence in society.

Actions and drawbacks of each approach will be discussed and groups will report conclusions.

“We’re looking here to draw out shared values in the messy middle of polar options,” Ms. Browning said. “This will be a hard, but powerful, discussion. The important thing is to listen to each other.”

The Georgetown Ministerial Alliance is an association of area religious leaders and service organizations that support one another and sharing resources to serve Georgetown.

Courageous Conversations is a group of Georgetown individuals from differing backgrounds who discuss and explore topics including social justice, race and ethnicity, mental health and economics.

Reservations can be made at https:// forms.gle/iMPw12ZaziNEqKx18.