Two weeks ago, I participated in a debate on reparations hosted by the American Public Square and later televised by KCPT, the PBS station in Kansas City. If I didn’t know
Professional wrestling has nothing on the reparations game
beforehand that the game was rigged, I did by the time the edited debate hit the airwaves. Grab your wallets, folks. The reparations crowd is coming for your money.
The concept behind American Public Square is a reasonable one. Troubled by the increasing polarization of the electorate, former ambassador to Portugal Allan Katz founded the organization to bridge the partisan divide through civil discourse.
The programming skews left, as does the audience, but the forum provides contrarians like myself an opportunity to burst the occasional bubble. Some years back, for intense, I participated in a discussion on Muslims in which the on-site “fact-checker” came to my aid more than once, as did the ringer of the “civility bell.” I cannot say I converted anyone to my viewpoint, but in my strategically congenial way — “Honey, he’s not the monster I thought he was” — I may have forced a few people to question their assumptions.
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