There was a time in our nation’s not too distant past when meeting with the President of the United States or even the Pope himself would be seen – without question – as an honor and a true privilege.

The City of Palmdale has been named as one of two cities in California to receive a 2014 Village Square Grant through Pepperdine University’s Davenport Institute.

Broward College and Village Square, a non-partisan public educational forum, are hosting a series of events designed to spark fact-based debates on a variety of topics, beginning with Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law.

[The Village Square is] relying on people finding a common humanity, and in so doing, playing to one of the brain’s great strengths: The same tribal cognitive processes that make it easy to turn people against one another can also be harnessed to bring them together.

The Village Square is about as local and as grassroots as an organization can get, taking a very bottom-up approach to problem-solving.

“For example, a group called The Village Square…”

“Memories of hanging, dimpled and pregnant chads were revived…”

Professional partisans present a vision of American politics where everything is divided between the far left and the far right… But there’s a powerful backlash brewing… Most important are the grassroots groups that are growing up on their own, like the Village Square movement based out of Florida…