Ever since the September 11 terrorist attacks, a national debate has surfaced about the methods that can be used to combat terrorism and prevent future attacks.
These issues were cast in a new light earlier this week, however, when Philadelphia hosted a four-day conference geared toward discussing terrorism and -- in the process -- learning about how to lead a successful forum. The four-day event was held in the National Liberty Museum in Center City.
Responding to a need for national dialogue about the issues at stake, the National Issues Forum -- a nationwide network of educational and community organizations that deliberate about nationwide issues -- has been running training workshops through its Public Policy Institutes.
Its objective, however, was not for the participants to learn about terrorism so much as it was for them to observe group dynamics similar to that of a public forum. Upon obtaining a greater understanding of the issues in question, attendees would be able to conduct similar forums in their own diverse communities.
"The purpose of the conference was to learn how to run forums," participant Michael Shannon said. Shannon is the president of a company in New Jersey which has a mission of bridging diversity and creating change.
The workshops provided an educational setting that allowed participants to explore values through the practice of deliberation, which NIF defines as a "way of reasoning and talking together" rather than an adversarial debate.
Penn's own Harris Sokoloff headed up the first of these sessions in a forum which posed the question "Terrorism: What should we do now?" Harris is the director of the Center for School Study Councils at the Graduate School of Education.
About twenty participants attended the forum, most of whom represented various political activist organizations. Regardless of their affiliations, however, all attendees shared the common goal of learning how to run effective forums in their respective communities.
After filling out a pre-forum questionnaire that asked the participants to assess their attitudes toward various potential actions against terrorism, attendees viewed a brief video outlining the three approaches to terrorism that served as a basis for the discussion that was to follow.
Among the proposed solutions were involving military sources to root out and destroy terrorist organizations, enforcing sanctions on terrorist-supporting nations and significantly increasing homeland security, even at the expense of certain personal freedoms.
Additionally, the video suggested that the root of terrorism -- widely believed to be the resentment that Muslims and Arabs feel toward the U.S. -- be examined with the intention of reassessing the way the U.S. influences power in the Mideast.
During the discussion, the participants weighed the pros and cons for each of the three courses of action and then presented their evaluations of how the public views each of the alternatives.
Afterwards, in a post-forum reflection, there was a general consensus that within the public there is controversy over how to combat terrorism.
"There is tension between trying to attack the root causes [of terrorism] and recognizing the need for initial military response," one participant said.
After the day's session was complete, a few of the participants shared their view of the deliberation that took place.
Sue Ellen Klein, who works at White Dog Cafe and was representing the Jewish Dialogue Group, said that the forum increased the participants' understanding of the public perspective.
Participating in a forum "makes you move out of your own responses to terrorism and helps you realize the larger responses that people have toward issues," she said.
Kya Simpkins, a high school teacher currently enrolled in a course at Penn that provides instruction on solving community problems, said that the forum serves as an "experiment" to see if group deliberation would work in a broader sense and serve a main objective of the NIF.
"We will see whether the ideas generated today will be put into practice," Simpkins said.
