Greetings

[Dub]

Greetings,

I'm Dub.

I'm very interested in politics, and I'm pretty passionate about them. Even as a teenager I was fascinated by the subject, and I continued to develop my interest through the military, college, and my careers.

I was invited to join this community by the many people I have spoken with in an effort to engage my fellow citizens in political discourse. Everyone I have met with expressed a desire to share views - and more importantly to hear and understand views of others - on issues that were of import to them.

All they needed, they said, was a way to do that, in a venue that would support it, with others who would share that goal, so that it did not devolve into a shouting match and personal attacks.

Despite my skepticism, I decided to give it a try. I've always found that when two people can be honest with one another about any issue, they may not always agree, but they can at least come to a middle ground and a respectful understanding of one another.

It's surprising to me then that in our modern world of tools that make communication so easy, it has become so difficult to engage in that very act, and to do so constructively.

I hope that together we create an inviting place where others want to meet and share.

If you have ideas or feedback to help achieve that goal, please post a thread in the feedback forum so that we can discuss it, and perhaps act on ideas that can make our community better for everyone involved.

Thank you for joining me here, and thank you for participating in what I one day hope to say was the modest beginning of an experiment that turned out to be wildly successful; the creation of a place where thoughtful people gather.