Conversations for the Common Good

Conversations for the common good is an interdisciplinary, university and community-wide movement linking Bloomsburg University students, staff, faculty, and administrators, plus community partners and the general public in a single goal: to invest time, talent, and resources to promote dialogue that unites, and bridges seemingly vast divides, within the community it serves.

Inspired by the VIA/BU collaboration American Creed in February 2018, and underwritten with the generous support of the Office of the President of Bloomsburg University, this movement hopes to generate informed, civilized discourse about meaningful questions related to civic life in a twenty-first-century democracy.

• What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States?
• What responsibilities do we have to one another in our community?
• What rights do we enjoy under the Constitution?
• Do all citizens enjoy those rights equally, and what are we called to do if the answer is “no?”
• What is the real meaning of the guarantee of free speech embodied in the First Amendment, especially in the age of social media?
• How should U.S. citizens respond when public expressions of protest are questioned and criticized?
• Where do we find truth in public media, especially on the internet?
• How do we distinguish between reliable and false information presented through social media outlets?
• What is “hate speech,” and should it be protected the same way as other kinds of speech?
• How should we respond when we see hate speech used?
• What liberties do we possess as citizens, and how do we appropriately claim them?
• What responsibilities do we have as citizens, and how do we live up to them?
• What are the common values that unite us, when political passions and rhetoric sometimes enflame and divide us?

These questions may make us uncomfortable but are essential to explore. In Conversations for the common good, we explore such questions in interactive community events that are free and open to the public.