Detroit Today: ‘Civility Night’ event to explore the power of mutual respect

In today’s political climate, many Americans believe they can’t be friends with people with opposing political viewpoints, or fear that any attempt to dive into a political topic with someone who might disagree would have a negative outcome.

This is part of the reason why Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson co-founded The Civility Project with Nolan Finley, editorial page editor for the Detroit News and Henderson’s long-time friend. Henderson and Finley rarely agree when it comes to politics, but their mutual respect for one another allows them to rise above their differences and actually listen, learn from and engage with each other.

On today’s show, Henderson speaks with Nolan about the goal of the project, and the upcoming Civility Night planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27 at Henry Ford College.

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Guest:

Nolan Finley is the editorial page editor of The Detroit News. He’s also the co-founder of the Great Lakes Civility Project. Finley says The Civility Project can help teach people tips on how to maintain relationships across the political divide.

“We’ve become a much more hateful society, and I think dangerously so,” he said. “A lot of this hatred is rooted in a lack of understanding for each other, certainly a lack of respect for each other, and what we’re trying to get people to do is break down their assumptions of people who don’t agree with them politically or otherwise.”

Listen to Detroit Today with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.