BEING BETTER ANGELS Students Seek to Navigate the Middle Ground
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n the run-up to November’s midterm elections, The Gunnery welcomed two representatives of Better Angels, a national, bipartisan citizens movement working to reduce political polarization in the United
States and foster respectful discourse across political differences. The event, held October 30 in Bourne Hall, was significant in that it was sponsored by the school’s Gray Party, a student-led club established several years ago by Anthony Cochrane ’18, a Republican, and Mark Choi ’18, a Democrat, with the goal of increasing civic engagement and helping students navigate the middle ground.
T H E G U N N E RY B U L L E T I N
In the fall term, a new group of student leaders, Duke Fishman ’19, William Alling Graney ’19, Jolie Kaplan ’20 and Nathaniel Ince ’20, emerged to carry on that work. In bringing Better Angels to The Gunnery, the school is at the vanguard of efforts to engage students in more open-minded and pluralistic ways of thinking and talking about political issues, before polarization sets in.
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Sabryna Coppola ’18, former president of the Young Democrats, with Gray Party co-founder Mark Choi ’18, former gubernatorial candidate David Walker, who served as Comptroller General of the United States under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and Gray Party co-founder Anthony Cochrane ’18 at The Governor’s Information Forum in October 2018