AZ Together bridges the divide for a respectful debate

All right, time now 7:11 with election season noise reaching a fever pitch. A new campaign is offering Arizonans a different path, one focused on listening instead of clashing. What a novel idea. It's called AZ Together. It's bringing leaders from across the political spectrum to the table for some honest, respectful debates. So joining us live in studio this morning to break down the projects are Carlos Alfaro. He is the founder of the Arizona Talks Foundation, along with two of the series participants, Tempe Mayor Corey Woods and Pinal County Recorder Dana Lewis. Good morning to all three of you. Thanks for joining us bright and early on this Thursday. Good morning. Carlos, I want to start with you. Can you just break down what this is and why you wanted to start something like this? Absolutely. Sometimes in politics, I think a lot of people think there's only two choices. Pick a side or check out entirely. And there's a lot of different choices. You can talk to somebody, you can respect the person in front of you, and you can change your mind. And this is what this is all about, understanding rather than winning or losing with each other. Now, was it difficult to find folks that wanted to participate with you? To tell you the truth, more difficult than we thought. But we found amazing leaders who think that doing this kind of thing and promoting a good civil dialogue is part of their service, as we can see with these leaders. Yeah. So Mayor Woods and Recorder Lewis, I wanted to ask you guys kind of what was your reaction when you heard? Obviously, you guys are from different branches of government, different political sides. sides. What was it like when they asked you to kind of come together to be part of this? I'll start with you, Mayor. So from my perspective, it's very important that we have these kinds of conversations. To Carlos's point, there are a lot of people that think politics is so divisive and polarizing that they've just completely checked out of the process altogether, which is not good for our democracy overall. And so quite honestly, there has to be the ability to have conversations about many times very difficult issues, but to not lose your friends and your family and not be able to talk to your neighbors. And I really think it's very important that folks like myself who are in elected office step up regardless of which party you're in and really encourage that. There are too many people who are not having Thanksgiving or holiday dinners together anymore because they can't agree on politics. And that's just not the way that our country should be. And Coordinator Lewis, what was kind of, I guess, your reaction going into something like this? And coming out of it, what was kind of some things that you learned? Well, I think voters, you know, are so used to the negative rhetoric. So to have conversations where you see them till the end and you listen to other people's opinions and you're able to walk away learning something about somebody and not checking out of the process. I think voters then maybe will vote to the end of the ballot. They'll stay the course and go through with it. Carlos, they both kind of mentioned something. There's so much mudslinging on either side of the aisle. It is kind of nice to have this dialogue in a civilized way. What's kind of next for you? What is next in this project? Well, we hope that Arizonans take this and share it and make a plan to vote, but go beyond that, right? Not only can you vote, but you can volunteer. You can host a conversation at dinner at your house. That's what the whole organization is about, getting Arizonans to act on this discourse, these conversations that are already happening at the dinner table, but now bringing it into the public sphere. And Mayor, what was this kind of like, I mean, to kind of bridge this gap with some of these different political ideologies here in Arizona to be able to kind of come to a table and talk about some of the issues that are really facing Arizonans without the mudslinging. Well, it's very interesting because the person I filmed my video with there, Mayor Kevin Harkey from Chandler, he and I've been friends for well over 15 years before either of us were mayors when we were on our respective city councils. And, you know, I'm a Democrat, he's a Republican, but we've always gotten along really well. We try to focus very much on what's good for the health and well-being of our cities and our residents. And that's all we've ever cared about. And quite honestly, I think when you're putting people first and not worried about party affiliation or partisanship. It's very easy to get along and to find ways to come together and collaborate and do things to move our communities forward. Yeah, because at the end of the day, we're all human. We all want the best for our state, right? How can folks watch these and take advantage of what you guys have put together here? Anyone can go to ArizonaTalks.org, continue to watch the four conversations that were put together, but then also share, make a plan to vote, and then make a plan to come to these events that are happening. We're talking about immigration, the economy, anything that is affecting Arizona families, we have a panel, a debate, a conversation for, so we're challenging Arizonans to come out and be more engaged. Some hot topics that you guys will be covering. Carlos, thank you so much. Recorder Lewis and Mayor Woods, thank you all for coming in this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks guys.