For more than a year, four women had been playing tennis together in Stockton at a city park.

They got along fine until 2020. One of the four revealed the fact she had attended a Trump rally in Nevada over the weekend. That got her booted from the group.

While that is hardly on the level of the screaming matches you sometimes see at public gatherings where there are protestors and counter protestors or the dripping hatred and sarcasm that is oozing out of social media key stroke after key stroke, it does underscore what really ails America.

We’ve not lost our senses as much as we have lost our bearings.

Political discourse in too many cases has turned into hating your neighbor, jettisoning longtime friends, and judging strangers based on personal biases

It is why the Manteca Community Interfaith Community (MICA) Appeal has asked "Braver Angels" to conduct a workshop for the community of Manteca. 

It takes place this Saturday, Sept. 21, from 4 to 7 p.m.

The event will be at St Paul's Methodist church, North Street and Powers Avenue. 

The welcome will be by Pastor Allison Byerley.

Manteca Mayor Gary Singh will share a  few thoughts.

Pastor Jim Marian, Calvary Community Center will offer remarks entitled "Remembering God's Love is the key to loving others.

The free event also includes dinner with music played by the Sierra High Jazz Band led by Rick Hammarstrom

They will also make a presentation of school supplies to Manteca Unified  for homeless students.

The Braver Angels Evening of Respect Red/Blue Workshop follows dinner.

Anyone wanting to attend must register at braver angels.com  no later than Thursday, Sept. 19. You can go to bit.ly/3Z330Rv and click on “reserve a spot” button, type BRAVER in the promo code box for each free ticket needed. The first page indicates a price from $0 to $30 but the ticket and dinner are actually free.

Members of MICA include St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Transformed through Hope Ministries, The Sikh Community, St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Islamic Center of Manteca, The Baha’i Faith of Manteca, and the Seventh-day Adventist church.

The verbal and printed vile we unload on each other prompted 21 frustrated people  — 10 Donald Trump supporters and 11 Hilary Clinton supporters — to gather in South Lebanon, Ohio in December of 2016 to try to turn the tide.

They were Democrats and Republicans, Blacks and whites, Muslims and Christians. Their goal was to see each other not as stereotypes but as neighbors that shared the same community and country.

What came out of that first meeting is a growing nationwide movement known as Braver Angels. Through debates, workshops, Zoom meetings and more they work to try and understand each other’s point of view even if they don’t agree with it.

They look for common ground and ways to work together by engaging those they disagree with.

They support principles that bring us together rather than divide us.

The Braver Angels website cites polling data and research that busts the myth that the animosity ripping at this nation’s social fabric came out of nowhere by the arrival of Donald Trump on the political stage and the ascension of Hillary Clinton.

Instead, it’s been a growing trend for the past 27years that likely would have reached its current level of vile if Mickey Mouse had been the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016 and Goofy the Republican nominee.

People have allowed labels and caricatures to blind them more and more with each passing year.

The goal of Braver Angels is not to meet in the political middle but to rediscover common ground.

Get beyond the blue and red labels and you’ll find there is no such thing as one absolute shade of either much like paint chip cards for either color you’ll find at Home Depot.

People judge others all the time — often without even knowing us or meeting us face to face — based on personal biases that everyone has whether it involves favorite colors, favorite pastimes or views on everything from apples to zoos and everything in between including politics.

After that initial start in 2016, Braver Angels today consists of not just Democrats and Republicans but independents as well as those of other political persuasions such as the Green Party and Libertarians.

The organization’s effort that some equate to marriage or family counseling isn’t to get people to think alike as it is to listen to the other side without elevating spirited debate into a shouting match.

They organize debates, discussions, workshops, forums and podcast in a wide array of hot topics from police reform to institutional racism using moderates that are both red and blue.

Their goal is to bring America back from the brink of the abyss by listening and exchanging views and not yelling and dehumanizing those that think differently

You can find out more about the organization  by going to their website at braverangels.org.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com