Forum

“ The leaders of the different political parties, and others whose deeds or works had given them celebrity or notoriety, were happy in their ignorance of the existence of the Forum, or they must have been rendered uncomfortable by finding themselves the objects of so much wild denunciation. ”

“ He must be offered a forum which provides him with an opportunity to bring his own contentions home to those who will adjudicate the controversy in which he is concerned. The forum itself must be one which is prepared to receive and consider all that he offers which is relevant to the controversy.' Final Report, p. ”

“ In short, the Forum is dressed up in quite a new attire, and many old visitors would scarcely recognize it in its modern garb. Crowds of spectators lean against the barriers every day, anxiously reviewing the carting of the earth, and awaiting for artistic valuables to "turn up." ”

“ Under the initiative and guidance of one or two energetic local leaders, inspired by an occasional outside lecturer, such as can be obtained at small expense from agricultural colleges and other public agencies, almost any American community ought to carry on a forum of public discussion for weeks, taking up first the most urgent questions of community interest and passing on gradually to matters of broader concern. ”

“ Yet in the forum he can make no claim, on the bare ground of his temperament, to superior discernment or authority. There arises thus a certain insincerity in our philosophic discussions: the potentest of all our premises is never mentioned. ”

“ The high-level political forum will have a central role in overseeing a network of follow-up and review processes at the global level, working coherently with the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and other relevant organs and forums, in accordance with existing mandates. It will facilitate sharing of experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, and provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for follow-up. ”

“ The only advantage, if indeed it may be called an advantage, is to give many disputing parties an otherwise unavailable opportunity to choose a Federal forum rather than a State forum. The substantive law governing the settlement of the dispute would not be changed in the least no matter which forum were chosen. ”

“ Every Sunday afternoon the Domain becomes the forum of the people. Any one who wishes to preach or pray or [Pg 35] talk politics has a right to set up his pulpit on the grass and toot for hearers. No one questions his doctrines, and he may say what he pleases. ”

“ Hill could find a forum for making a successful refutation of the Life material or that the public's interest in it would be sufficient for the truth to win out by comparison as it might in that area of discussion central to a free society. ”

“ The Forum movement which has provided platforms from which various angles of the labor problem could be discussed before a general public has had large backing from ministers, George Lackland estimating that more than fifty per cent of such forums are to be found in churches. ”

“ A few people must be responsible for getting the meetings fired up and keep the discussion rolling. The meeting's organization may depend on the number of participants, where they come from, the exclusivity of the forum, and the purpose of the "meeting." In large meetings, with free access for outsiders, the best strategy may be to appoint a Moderator-Editor. ”

“ There are useful organizations of farmers, manufacturers, wage-earners, bankers, merchants, lawyers, economists and other distinct but interacting elements of society, which hold meetings for discussion of affairs peculiar to their own pursuits and callings. The Federation, in addition to its Departments for the accomplishment of specific purposes, provides a forum where representatives of all these elements of society may meet to discuss national problems in which they have a common interest. ”

“ The meal over, the man of politics or business would leave his house, outside which his clients and friends or other hangers-on would be waiting for him, and proceed to the Forum,—the centre, as we have seen, of all his activity—accompanied by these people in a kind of procession. ”

“ Having set forth their belief that by common consent the forum, the camp, and the field were assigned to men, these women secured a forum from which to promulgate advice and direction to the men who were indeed allowed possession of the camp and the field. ”

“ However, " [w] hen the government intentionally opens a nontraditional forum for public discourse it creates a designated public forum." Id. All remaining public property is considered nonpublic fora. ”

“ The forums must involve Americans from all segments of our society: business, labor, educational, cultural, religious, political and community leaders; specialists working with the aged; and, most important, older people themselves. ”

“ Between the amphitheatre and the theatre is the site of the Forum, of which nothing is now visible, and to the south on a projecting spur were tombs of the Roman period. There are also many remains of houses and villas. The citadel—which stood on the highest point an abrupt rock—was approached only on one side, that towards the city, and even here by a steep ascent of 150 ft. Upon it remains of the medieval castle, which stood here until 1191, alone are visible. The city walls, of which some remains still exist below the theatre, are built of blocks of the native “ lapis Albanus ” or peperino. ”

“ In the plans for your hike, you proposed to do something, to go somewhere; if the question of conservation is up for discussion it is with some definite end in view, not simply as an excuse for general talk about it. The discussion which does not lead to a definite plan of action is not truly argument. If after your audience, whether it is your patrol, your debating club, or later your legislature, has listened to you, it says “What a fine speech!” you have failed. The audience should be convinced to the point of action. ”

“ For day after day, every public meeting illustrates afresh this same differentiation characterizing the primitive political agency, and illustrates afresh the actions of its respective parts. There is habitually the great body of the less distinguished, forming the audience, whose share in the proceedings consists in expressing approval or disapproval, and saying ay or no to the resolutions proposed. There is the smaller part, occupying the platform—the men whose wealth, position, or capacity gives them influence—the local chiefs by whom the discussions are carried on. ”

“ In such a conference, the person or group desiring to create better understanding or to eliminate conflict between elements of the community calls together, without any publicity, representatives of various interests for a discussion of points of view, with the understanding that there will be no attempt to reach conclusions or arrive at any official decisions. ”

“ On the lower rungs of the political ladder it is in the debating society, at the street corner, in clubs, and on platforms that the ambitious artisan acquires the training which takes him from the secretaryship of his Union to the Town Council, from the latter to the House of Commons, and from the back benches to the front. ”

“ The Ford Hall Town Meeting is a school of democracy at work; it is a school of applied brotherhood. That statement may sound like an attempt at fine writing but I want to show you that applied to the Town Meeting it is justified. I want to show you also that after you have carried on a debating club for a few years, the Town Meeting is a good graduate school for the further development of the art of debate. You will remember that throughout this book I have insisted that the real purpose of debate is to get worth while things done. ”

“ When the question is somewhat of a burning one, and the meeting begins to grow warm, all speak at once, and none listen. On these occasions the assembly breaks up into groups, each of which discusses the subject on its own account. ”

“ To call a general meeting of the society for its discussion would be sure to result in newspaper notice that would doubtless be as disagreeable to you as it would be offensive to us and injurious to our organization. ”

“ When you want to discuss a topic with your community, what tools work for you, and what problems block you? What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them? What do others struggle with in your community about talk pages? ”

“ What is the remedy for an “arrogant minority”? Group discussion. Group discussion will diminish suggestion as a social force and give place to interpermeation.
When we advocate discussion as a political method, we are not advocating the extension of a method already in use. There is little discussion to-day. Talk to air our grievances or as a steam-valve for the hot-headed, the avowed intention sometimes in the organization of so-called “discussion” societies, is not discussion. ”

“ A fundamental study of group and individual psychology is required before the public relations counsel can97 determine how readily individuals or groups will accept modifications of viewpoints or policies, which they have already imposed upon their respective mediums.
No idea or opinion is an isolated factor. It is surrounded and influenced by precedent, authority, habit and all the other human motivations.
For a lucid conception of the functions, power and social utility of the public relations counsel it is vitally important to have a clear grasp of the fundamentals with which he must work. ”

“ She is in touch with, has, as we have seen, her stake and her responsibility in regard to every single activity of the meeting of which she is a member. Through every meeting and through every home, moreover, there is the cleansing and ventilating ebb and flow of the life of the whole society, and this not merely by means of the circulation of matter relating to the deliberations and the work of the society, but also in the form of personal contact. ”

“ The second plan is modelled after the old-fashioned town meeting that was transplanted from the mother country to New England, and has spread to other parts of the United States. It is a gathering of all who wish to discuss freely some question that interests them all, and it is more strictly co-operative than the first plan, for there is no one speaker to contribute the main part of the debate, but each may make his own contribution, and by the power of his own persuasion win for his argument the decision of the meeting. ”

“ One would think that the larger the company is, in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and subjects would be started in discourse; but instead of this, we find that conversation is never so much straitened and confined as in numerous assemblies. When a multitude meet together upon any subject of discourse, their debates are taken up chiefly with forms and general positions; nay, if we come into a more contracted assembly of men and women, the talk generally runs upon the weather, fashions, news, and the like public topics. ”

“ The conference is divided into ten sections:
Children. Delinquents. Health. Public agencies and institutions. The family. Industrial and economic problems. The local community. Mental hygiene. Organization of social forces. Uniting of native and foreign-born.
At the annual convention each of these ten sections holds its own group meetings at which papers are presented and discussions conducted on the subjects appropriate to the section. It will be seen that the division into sections is on a basis of administrative fields rather than technique or function. ”

“ If every one in position of leadership or authority in relation to it—and among those are members of this Society—shall feel a responsibility for guiding discussion into proper channels; if debate on school-book questions shall be kept not merely free but also parliamentary in form and spirit; if we all insist that differences of view must be treated tolerantly ”

“ You will find men and women meeting every month in their lodges and clubs, discussing all sorts of things, music, art, and literature, but we find hardly any organized meetings for the discussion of the big things in life, our liberties, our rights, and our duties as citizens of this free republic. ”

“ At their public meetings—which were held pretty often, for they had much more public than private business to attend to—they occupied a great share of their time in discussing questions which were so deep and muddy, that nobody but they ever saw to the bottom of them. ”

“ As such, the public relations counsel must be alive to the events of the day—not only the events that are printed but the events which are forming hour by hour, as reported in the words that are spoken on the street, in the smoking cars, in the school room, or expressed in any of the other forms of57 thought communication that make up public opinion. ”

“ A refusal to meet in conference until the figure proposed is acceptable rules out discussion between parties as a means of coming to terms on the main question in a dispute.
I have taken part in the settlement of probably more industrial differences than most politicians. In every case I have started with an impasse. The [Pg 197] first meeting of the parties always revealed an apparently unbridgeable chasm between their respective positions; but perseverance and an honest endeavour on both sides to find a solution usually ends in agreement. Goodwill can bridge any abyss. ”

“ The Social Union agreed, and now for seven winters every Sunday night has seen twelve hundred earnest men and women gathered in Ford Hall to [121] listen to one who has a message and is not afraid to let the other man talk back. The speaker speaks, and then the listeners ask questions. They have the right to talk out in meeting, you see, and understand the great difference between being talked at and being talked with. At the Ford Hall Meetings, speaker and audience talk with each other. ”

“ Put twenty men in a room and let them discuss any important question. At first all will take part in the discussion, but as the discussion proceeds, one after another drops out until finally two are left in debate, one on one side and one on the other. The rest are content to have their ideas presented by those who can present them best. ”