Any anthropologists here? How can we build community between two tribes (R,D) w separate realities?
With all of human history to look back on and learn from, how can the walls be brought down between us?
My good friend is just recovering now from her second round of life threatening and harrowing medical crises. She survived leukemia (over a million dollars in medical bills), e coli, TTP (look it up, horrible) and kidney disease, the last round of care of which was over half a million dollars. The paperwork is measured in linear feet.
Praise Akua, she had access to two family members who could commit to her full time care, without which the bone marrow operation would not have been approved by the insurance company, at which point she would have died. For lack of a caregiver that the insurance companies require, but will not pay for.
She is still not convinced that universal single payer would be good for Americans. Her husband is a winger, and as much as I care about her, I know we are from two different tribes.
More broadly, socially, how can we build understanding and connection in those communities and among those community members who see things so completely differently than we do? They have a separate reality, separate facts, whatever Winston Churchill may have said.
Community conversations on the topic of universal single payer, held in auditoriums or cafeterias? Intergenerational community conversations on women's health care rights and access to birth control?
There are still women among us who lived through the period when birth control was illegal. There are retired public health nurses who remember seeing women with 5,6,7 children come in after having attempted abortions, or illegal abortions. Imagine the power of young women today of all (and no) political leanings hearing first person those womens' stories?
I propose community conversations as one way to break down the walls. Hoping this seed might find fertile soil here, and looking forward to hearing your suggestions too.
= new reply since forum marked as read
kidding 
for you malihini (foreigners) out there, that's native Hawaiian conflict resolution, still in use today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho%CA%BBoponopono#Modern_uses
The process begins with prayer. A statement of the problem is made, and the transgression discussed. Family members are expected to work problems through and cooperate, not "hold fast to the fault". One or more periods of silence may be taken for reflection on the entanglement of emotions and injuries. Everyone's feelings are acknowledged. Then confession, repentance and forgiveness take place. Everyone releases (kala) each other, letting go. They cut off the past (ʻoki), and together they close the event with a ceremonial feast, called pani, which often included eating limu kala or kala seaweed, symbolic of the release....
In the late 20th century, courts in Hawaiʻi began to order juvenile and adult offenders to work with an elder who would conduct hoʻoponopono for their families, as a form of alternative dispute resolution. The hoʻoponopono is conducted in the traditional way, without court interference, with a practitioner picked by the family from a list of court-approved providers.
Some native practitioners provide hoʻoponopono to clients who otherwise might seek family counseling.
The only problem would be finding enough repukes in Hawai'i to make it work.
