Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With Election Day taking place Tuesday, local civic and religious leaders called for peace during a rally on Monday at the Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration Site, especially given the volatile nature of the political landscape heading into the Presidential Election.
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Dr. Dan Trippie from Restoration Church and the Resetting the Table movement has been working to reduce political polarization locally and across the nation.
"Part of our mission is that our democracy works when we dialog with one another, the free exchange of ideas. And we're quite concerned about the increase of political polarization and the violence that comes from that," said Trippie on Monday. "We're working across the nation to help encourage courageous conversations, and the thing to understand is that a courageous conversation doesn't mean that we're going to agree. In fact, we probably may not agree. We can hold our convictions, but understanding another person is not the same thing as agreement. We want to encourage people to talk across ideological divides as a way to stitch up our democracy."
Over the past year, Trippie and others with Resetting the Table have been bringing people from the political right and the political left together with the hope of a mutual understanding where both sides are coming from with a certain issue at hand.
"We've been engaging in skills to dialog, and then actually been grown in friendship, shared meals together, and really have shown that we don't have to agree to be neighbors," Trippie said. "My faith teaches me that everybody is made in the image of God, and that means they're worthy of dignity and value. And by listening to the other person, I'm recognizing the dignity and the value that they have."
Heading into Tuesday's Presidential Election, Trippie understands the volatility of where things stand in the race between Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, and Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. He's hoping for the political process to fairly play out in this race, resulting in a vote that becomes non-violent.
"I think what we're most concerned about here is physical acts of violence and the destruction of property," Trippie said.
"I think we have two sides that are suspicious of election results, and I think that is on either side. And when people feel something suspicious has happened, or they feel that their voice hasn't been heard, there's a tendency for a reaction. What we're hoping will not happen is a violent reaction, but there would be a political process and a legal process, and all the mechanisms that we have in our republic that that would be the route that people would go, and not a violent reaction."
Trippie feels when people start to dehumanize one another because of their political beliefs, and when people start to see the other person as an enemy just because of different political beliefs, it's something that needs to be identified as problematic across the board.
"We can disagree, in fact, our entire republic is based on the fact that we're going to disagree, and then we're going to bring the ideas to the table, and we're going to work those out. So when we start to other the other, and we start to see our neighbor is our enemy, I think those are some warning signs that we need to take notice of," he said.
Political violence can range from something as simple as the destruction of lawn signs in someone's yard to the assassination attempt of former President Trump and/or any sitting representative.
"We've seen here locally, a fire bombing of a crisis pregnancy center that happened, and that was politically motivated. And then, of course, not at the same degree that anyone could imagine, but the shooting of innocent people based on political ideology. So we see that our ability to dialog with one another is how we can help reduce some of that," Trippie noted.
So what more can people do in order to peacefully discuss politics and avoid resorting to acting out in aggression or with violence?
"Here would be my advice: Sit down with somebody across the aisle, talk to them. Find out why the beliefs that they hold are so meaningful to them," Trippie said. "That doesn't mean sacrificing yours, that doesn't mean giving up your convictions. In fact, I think we learn to respect one another when we actually hold to our convictions and we don't try to flatten them. So I would say sit down to somebody that is going to vote differently from you, and listen to them. Find out why that was a meaningful vote."
Polls across Erie County will be open from 6 a.m.-to-9 p.m. EST on Election Day.
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