Category: News & Reviews

It started with the idea that they would fight.

A lot.

Putting the very different editorial page editors of Detroit’s two daily newspapers on air together was sure to generate fireworks.

And it did.

“Just about any issue that came up, Nolan and I could have an argument about,” journalist Stephen Henderson said about Nolan Finley, his co-host on the Detroit Public Television show One Detroit.

But then the two started talking off-air. What did they like to do? Families, hobbies, interests? From there a deep and lasting friendship was born—and an idea for how to ease the tensions of today’s divisive culture and create more civility.

On Sept. 5, Henderson and Finley joined a virtual group of nearly 100 Rogel staff to discuss their initiative, the Civility Project, and share ideas to develop more respectful and enriching conversations in our lives. The event was organized by the Oncology Clinical Trials Support Unit’s DEI committee.

“The Civility Project is not a kumbaya exercise designed to get everyone to get along and not have disagreements,” said Henderson, a long-time reporter and editor at the Detroit Free Press and now executive editor at BridgeDetroit. “We get after each other, we get upset. We really disagree, and it’s genuine. We’re not afraid of that disagreement. At the same time, there is a civility to one another.”

Finley, who has spent his career as a reporter and editor at the Detroit News, took it a step farther: “He and I will never agree. But our society depends on disagreement and debate. We don’t want people to avoid conversations.”

Instead, they said, people need to talk to each other in a meaningful and productive way. They created four key pillars:

• Drop assumptions. Get to know people before forming a picture of who they are.
• Set honest goals for the conversation. When you talk to someone you disagree with, what are you hoping to get out of that discussion?
• Listen actively. It’s not about prepping your next witty retort but really seeking to hear and understand what the other person is saying.
• Keep returning to the conversation. Make an investment in the relationship. Even if you get angry, don’t walk away.

Finley noted that people come to very different viewpoints based on the information, experience and personal values they have gathered throughout their life.

“The first step in building a civil, productive relationship with someone you disagree with is to find out what those values are. Before you engage in a difficult conversation, sit down and ask questions,” he said. “Once you start to have the conversation and apply the actual reasons people feel the way they do, it might not change your views at all, but hopefully it instills respect for the other person and the way they’ve lived their lives. It’s a step toward civility.”

The Civility Project encourages active listening, which goes beyond merely letting someone else talk.

“In a lot of cases, we’re not actually listening. When someone else is talking, we’re thinking, ‘as soon as that person’s done here’s what I’m going to say back.’ Or we’re judging what they’re saying as they’re saying it,” Henderson said.

He has two tests for himself when listening. First is whether he can repeat back the essence of what the person said. Second is whether he has questions. This leads to an actual exchange of ideas.

As vitriol, misinformation and a decided lack of civility cycle through social media and 24-hour news networks, Henderson and Finley go back to individual relationships: recognizing what’s important, who’s important and the opportunities to make meaningful connections.

“What we’re talking about here is doing things differently in the spaces where you can have a say,”Henderson said.

“Think about your family, neighbor, school or religious community. The people you interact with every day are the folks with whom you have the opportunity to change the value of the relationships and the way those interactions go.”

They also note that some of the political incivility is intentional, to make people feel anxious or fear what could happen. Don’t reward this, Finley said. Avoid media outlets, social media, businesses and other sources that benefit from fueling anger.

Henderson and Finley began as co-hosts of One Detroit in 2008. They’ve been close friends since, and both spoke passionately about how important that friendship is.

“We’re not out to convert one another. I know I’m never going to change Steve’s fundamental views. I’m never going to convert him to my way of thinking,” Finley said. “But where’s the fun in that?”

Over the span of their careers, Detroit journalists Noah Finley and Stephen Henderson haven’t agreed on almost anything politically.

Yet the Detroit News editorial page editor and the former Detroit Free Press editorial page editor, respectively, came to Saginaw Valley State University on April 18 to talk about how they have been able to maintain their close friendship.

This friendship is the root of their cause, the Civility Project, which started in 2019 and has an objective to help people engage in civil discourse.

“We’re just trying to get people to talk to each other,” Finley said to an audience of about 30 people at the Rhea Miller Recital Hall.

To Finley and Henderson, a constructive argument is built on four pillars: drop assumptions, set reasonable expectations, practice active listening, and have a commitment to one another and the space you’re sharing.

It’s key to not assume what someone’s belief is based on the label of an ideology, Finley said. All people come to their opinions through learning information and filtering it through their experiences.

Henderson said one way to drop those assumptions is by being interested in who the other person really is.

“This is not an effort to make people agree,” he said. “This is about how we talk to each other, about what we see in one another, and even if we disagree, finding value in the person who we disagree with and maintaining those differences.”

While civility does have some limits, like when someone in a marginalized group might be pushed to defend their humanity, Henderson also reiterated that people should not make assumptions.

“Nobody has the obligation to counter someone who doesn’t respect their rights or humanity,” Henderson said. “One of the problems now is that we are almost trained to assume that people who disagree with us fall into that category (of having animosity towards us).”

While trying to understand who the other person is, Finley said people should not expect to change the other person’s ideology in an argument. But both parties should learn from each other in an argument.

“We may never agree, but we can disagree with a lot more understanding and respect for one another,” he said.

Throughout the discussion, social media was often brought up as the epicenter of issues surrounding discourse.

Social media encourage “certainty over curiosity,” Henderson said.

But people need to talk about their differences, Finley added.

“Don’t ignore it,” he said. “That just breeds resentment. I think the key to salvaging (a relationship) is saying that we’re going to talk about our differences, and we’re going to talk about (them) in a respectful way.”

 The event was part of the university’s Velasquez Lecture on Liberty and Free Markets series.

Henderson won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for commentary and the 2014 National Association of Black Journalists Journalist of the Year Award while writing for the Free Press. Since 2015, he has been the host of “Detroit Today” on WDET. 

Finley has also been the Detroit News city editor, business editor, politics editor and deputy managing editor. In 2000, he was named Editorial Page Editor and his columns have appeared in the newspaper ever since. He is co-host of One Detroit on Detroit Public Television. 

By Ben Jodway, Midland Daily News

Essay By William McKenzie
Senior Editorial Advisor
George W. Bush Institute

At times, it may seem like we are drowning in conflict and division. But what if interesting and innovative projects are occurring in our states that allow communities and thus our nation to function as “one out of many” – which is the essence of a pluralistic society? What if these thousand points of light are a major part of the solutions that our country needs?  

Here are a few examples of organizations and individuals that are “practicing pluralism,” often away from the national spotlight. Their work reflects a dedication to respectfully engage with others from different points of view and background. In doing so, these efforts are strengthening the ties that bind us. 

Disagree Better – A commitment to pluralism is evident in the work of Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas. The duo appeared in late January at an Engage at the Bush Center event presented by NexPoint to discuss the Disagree Better initiative that Cox launched with Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado.  

Cox emphasized during the Bush Center event that “disagreeing better” is not the same as civility or arguing that we must all agree. As he said, our country needs to discuss different points of view. It’s just that “we have forgotten [how] to have conflict without tearing each other apart.” 

Cox planted the seeds for the Disagree Better initiative as he campaigned for reelection in 2020. Witnessing the friction in the country, the incumbent decided to do something bold. He reached out to his Democratic opponent, Chris Peterson, to create a television ad together.  

The goal was to explain to voters their shared values and why they would accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. Peterson agreed, the ad ran, and research from Stanford University’s Strengthening Democracy Challenge showed the “One Nation” ad was highly effective in reducing partisan violence. 

When he became Chair of the National Governors Association in 2023, Cox partnered with Polis, the Vice-Chair, to launch the Disagree Better initiative. Strategies include hosting four bipartisan events around the country to highlight how people can discuss divisive issues without being venomous; encouraging debates on college campuses that allow students to engage in healthy conflict; and urging political opponents to write op-eds together or produce their own campaign ad together. 

As my Pluralism Challenge partner Chris Walsh, Director of Global Policy at the Bush Institute, wrote last summer, better disagreement makes our democracy better.  

State Future Caucus – The caucus engages millennial and Gen Z lawmakers in statehouses to work across party lines to resolve problems. Emphasizing “collaborative governance,” the effort is an initiative of the Future Caucus organization that grew out of a 2013 Millennial Action Project. State Future Caucus now has members in 33 states and boasts of having 156 state legislators in leadership positions. 

Participants are encouraged to listen to each other, think of “we,” build trust among themselves, emphasize with another’s viewpoint, work around barriers, and pursue innovative action. These are not feel-good platitudes, either.  

In Arkansas, for example, lawmakers in 2023 passed the CROWN Act that two State Future Caucus members – Republican State Sen. Breanne Davis and Democratic State Rep. Jamie Scott – sponsored. The legislation bars discrimination based upon hairstyle. Among other things, the measure prohibits a coach or administrator from kicking a student off an athletic team because of their hairstyle. Similarly, two Oklahoma State Future Caucus members, Democratic Rep. Ajay Pittman and Republican State Sen. John Michael Montgomery, joined together in their statehouse to craft a maternal health care bill. 

The Civility Project – Detroit journalists Nolan Finley and Stephen Henderson see the world differently. They even worked at competing newspapers: Finley at the Detroit News, where he serves now as Editorial Page Editor, and Stephen Henderson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary at the Detroit Free Press before founding the website BridgeDetroit. 

The pair launched the Civility Project in the Great Lakes region so they could have productive discussions. “Our differences forced us to engage,” Finley told PBS for its recent documentary, A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy. 

Now, the duo hold workshops where they emphasize the importance of listening to other points of view.

“A conversation is not a competition” Finley told me during a recent phone conversation. The workshops focus on these pillars: Drop assumptions about each other; don’t try to convert each other; ask informed questions; and stick with the conversation through its fits and starts. This is all part of searching for the humanity behind a point of view. 

These are just three examples of the many thousand points of light across the country, as President George H.W. Bush described initiatives that bind together communities through serving one another. While America faces a number of problems that national leaders can best resolve, a strength of the country is the power of association and practicality that often exists in our communities and states. 

The Pluralism Challenge series will continue to showcase these stories. For example, this essay highlights the difficult, but nonetheless collaborative, efforts pursued by mayors like David Holt of Oklahoma City and Mattie Parker of Fort Worth and former Mayor Mike Rawlings of Dallas.  

Solutions do exist. And they often originate from “we the people.” We just need to keep looking for them.

This PBS documentary aired on January 2, 2024, and features Nolan Finley and Stephen Henderson from the Great Lakes Civility Project. Watch it here:

In today’s political climate, many Americans believe they can’t be friends with people with opposing political viewpoints, or fear that any attempt to dive into a political topic with someone who might disagree would have a negative outcome.

This is part of the reason why Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson co-founded The Civility Project with Nolan Finley, editorial page editor for the Detroit News and Henderson’s long-time friend. Henderson and Finley rarely agree when it comes to politics, but their mutual respect for one another allows them to rise above their differences and actually listen, learn from and engage with each other.

On today’s show, Henderson speaks with Nolan about the goal of the project, and the upcoming Civility Night planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27 at Henry Ford College.

Two of Metro Detroit’s biggest political voices join us today in Nolan Finley and Stephen Henderson.

Stephen as founding editor of Bridge Detroit and host of Detroit Today on WDET – and Nolan as editorial page editor of the Detroit News – they have very different views, but they’re good friends and have teamed up to create the Great Lakes Civility Project.

As a person who likes a good discussion, civility and how to make it happen is an interesting concept to me – and I wanted to talk it out with two people who have found ways to make it work.