ELY- The Ely chapter of the Braver Angels Alliance demonstrated their bravery last Thursday evening when they hosted a three-hour workshop with a panel on copper-nickel mining in the Arrowhead region. The group Braver Angels seeks to restore civility to political debate. Its method is to bring opposing sides of an issue together to better understand one another’s positions and discover their shared values.
The event remained largely civil and the participants did find a common ground, though not on the issue of mining itself.
The event did appear rushed at times as the organizers attempted to jam a program designed for five hours into three, requiring the omission of some of the common ground and solution exercises. Some of the most interesting questions posed early on never received an airing.
Participants
The event was billed as a “common ground single-issue in-person workshop.” Two moderators from the Braver Angels Alliance of Minnesota led a panel through a series of workshop exercises while the audience listened and watched. The exercises were designed to help panel members — and the audience — understand differing points of view and to find common ground with those on opposite sides of the issue.
The moderators were Bruce McKenzie and Melinda Voss, both from the Twin Cities. The ten panelists included Angela Campbell, Pete Doran, Bill Erzar, Julie Lucas, and Gerald Tyler advocating for mining, and Peta Barrett, Rachel Hedlund, Hudson Kingston, Becky Rom, and Steve Schon in opposition.
Workshop format
The workshop participants were the ten panelists. The crowd of over a hundred observers was asked to “not participate verbally or nonverbally in the group participation.” The moderators asked that the audience not engage in “eye-rolling” or loud, disruptive sighs.”
The workshop included five exercises. At the end of the three hours, the workshop concluded with three exercises completed.
The first exercise was called the fishbowl, where each participant outlined their connection to the issue of copper-nickel mining. Things got interesting in the second exercise, where an opponent and a proponent of mining paired off to formulate and answer two questions from their partner. The first question was: “What are a couple of policies or remedies I support related to the issue?” The second question was: “What is a question of curiosity I have about my partner’s positions.”
Because of the pairing off, this portion of the workshop was disjointed for the audience because tracking five pairs of simultaneous conversation was impossible.
At the end of the exercise, the pairs were invited to share their questions. Because of the time constraints, the airing of the questions felt rushed and many pairs did not volunteer to discuss their questions.
The questions that were shared with the audience were varied. Berrett asked Tyler, “Have you ever thought about other industries that exist now or could be created that we could court to come to the Iron Range, to Ely?”
Schon revealed some of the tensions and distrust over mining and its opposition when he noted that some groups arrange trips for Ely kids into the Boundary Waters. He asked his partner, Hedlund, who works for Friends of the Boundary Waters: Are you bringing up any of the politics of the mining issue as you (host Boundary Waters trips)?” Hedlund explained that they don’t.
Schon and Erzar were partners for this second exercise. After Erzar made a strong statement that mines should be unionized, Schon asked: “if he’d had any experience with mines that hadn’t been unionized, and if there were any detrimental effects for the workers.”
Perhaps the most interesting question of the evening was posed by Tyler, who asked, “Would you support copper-nickel mining if the risk of sulfide pollution could be eliminated?”
Moderator McKenzie queried, “And the answer was?”
Tyler’s partner Barrett replied, “We didn’t a get a chance to answer it.”
Common Ground
For the third exercise, the opponents and proponents broke into separate groups and identified “values, concerns, and solutions” which they believed the other side would agree with.
When the two sides got back together, the two sides agreed on the need for affordable and available housing, though their suggested solutions varied. They also agreed on providing opportunities to bring children into the Boundary Waters, recycling e-waste as an industry on the Iron Range, and involving the local community in scientific research, especially water quality monitoring.
Not surprisingly, the policy suggestion by the opponents — banning copper-nickel mining for 20 years in the Boundary Waters watershed — didn’t have any traction for the proponent side. And the policy statement proposed by the proponents — that copper-nickel mining would provide good employment opportunities and a vibrant community — found no real takers by the opponent side.
While the outcome of this exercise was predictable, the exercise did succeed in finding areas of agreement for the two sides.
Not enough time
The workshop ran out of time, so the fourth and fifth exercises were dropped. The fourth exercise was to discuss the points where the two sides did not agree, to “try to reach unanimous acceptance.” The fifth was to pair off again to formulate action items based on where the two sides did agree.
The lack of time prevented a discussion on where the two sides disagreed. One policy that would have been worthy of discussion came from the proponent side: “(place) confidence in regulators to make science-based decisions.”
Unfortunately, the decision to run a five-hour workshop in three hours cut off what would have been an interesting exchange of ideas. Regardless, given the civil and often humorous exchanges between the panelists, the Braver Angels of Ely did achieve one notable success: a civil and respectful exchange about the hottest local issue in Ely.
Minnesota Public Radio will air a program on the Ely Braver Angels workshop on the “Talking Sense” program later this month. The host of “Talking Sense,” Catharine Richert, covered the event in person. She wasn’t sure when the program would be scheduled.