I saw a presentation about library services

Context
The Louisiana State Library sent me an invitation today to attend a webinar on "Meeting Needs Before They Need It." I'm not free at the scheduled time tomorrow, so I stopped by the website for the session to look at the accompanying PowerPoints. It appears that one of the needs Nancy Kranich plans to talk about is the need for civic engagement.

Commentary
The idea that our society might have a problem with civic engagement did not show up on my radar until the book Bowling Alone was published. As so often happens with librarians, I haven't read the book itself, just several reviews and synopses. The general thesis appears to be that Americans are doing a lot more things (like bowling) alone that they used to congregate in groups for and that this trend is rending the fabric of our society.

Nancy Kranich appears to be looking at a slightly different problem of civic engagement: that even when we do congregate, we're very selective about who we congregate with. My sister the biology teacher spends a little time in her classes talking about how similar people are to the songbirds who mate only with other birds that sing the same song. We say "opposites attract," but realistically we're more likely to hang out with people who are ethnically, economically or culturally similar to us. Kranich envisions libraries as places where people with differing perspectives can get together and learn from each other.

When I first read this part of the PowerPoint, I thought, "OK, we can create the space, but how do we convince people to participate?" I'm sure I'm not alone in being very fond of my particular circle of like-minded people and none too willing to change it. People who are different from me make me uncomfortable. Why not just avoid them?

Well, at the very least, because we can't. By design or by accident, depending upon whom you ask, we have a very heterogeneous society in the United States. Whether we choose to socialize with people who are different from us or not, they are going to have an effect on how we're governed, entertained and schooled. If we don't engage with each other we'll spend all our time either fighting or denying diversity, which seems unproductive in the extreme. This situation actually exists worldwide; it's just a little more obvious 'round here.

But there's more to it than just, "oh well, we have to live with these people, better make the best of it." If we go back to biology we learn that any creature that reproduces sexually (e.g., us, as opposed to amoebas) must introduce new genetic material in order to thrive. I believe the same is true of our interior selves as well. Sure, I'm uncomfortable with people who are different than me, but I'd surely stagnate if all I did was hang around with people who are just like me. My mind is an omnivore; it needs different kinds of intellectual food to stay healthy. How about we engage in a civic potluck?

What did you see today?