Peace in Annapolis

In my last post, I mentioned that my concept of Annapolis changed somewhat during the peace conference. I was very curious how a city of 35-40,000 population would react to being the focal point of much of the world news for a few days. Most cities of this size would have a pretty good fit of narcissism and navel-gazing as they tried to figure out what all this means to their image, their place in history, etc.


At the very least, a lot of folks would probably be out trying to take in what was going on and get a sense of personal "I was there" out of it. That is very human. Hey - that is part of why I went downtown Tuesday. No matter how you slice it, a little self-gratification and self-congratulation could certainly be expected.


Amazingly, I did not see much of that around here.


It is not that Annapolitans are not proud of their city's place in history. They are. Maybe because there is so MUCH history and tradition already here, it was not enough to really make the city big-headed last week. People here tend to be pretty unflappable by nature.


But I believe there is more to it.


First let me share a little more of my views since I am a newcomer here. For about a year now, I have found myself giving a pretty consistent answer to people back home (and here) who ask me what I think of the local people. The word I hear myself using is "earnest." After being here a while, I find people in this region to be pretty earnest people.


You have to understand that, where I come from, people are also very sincere (slightly different than earnest) but show it in different ways. For one thing, Appalachian people seem to have a lot more of the old Irish-style gift of Blarney, tall-telling, and pure out-and-out sandbagging. There is also a lot of back slapping, smiling, emoting etc. in many conversations.


I tried that some when I got here and a lot of people would just stare at me, earnestly! They really wanted to know what the heck I was talking about. Before I moved here I had heard that people in this part of the country are more 'direct' and 'to-the-point' and I expected that. But I had not expected the real sincerity that is often in it. It surprised me that so many people really did seem to want to know what I was saying. They might not respond in a way I am familiar with, but they seemed to want to know.


(We can have another discussion about which method is the more effective form of communication - at another time).


But I have to say, last week the intensity and 'earnestness' of getting directly to the real issue took on new meaning for me in Annapolis.


Page back with me to Tuesday afternoon of last week. I was outside the Academy wall, watching people hash out the issues on the streets without the diplomacy and decorum of the diplomats inside. It was loud.

There were protestors of all stripes - American Jews protesting against the whole two-state idea from a religious viewpoint, Israelis protesting about the Israeli prime minister neglecting schools back home, peace protestors from all over protesting the lack thereof, American students protesting American policy. That was just the bunch that I saw. It was a noisy bazaar of protest.


I even witnessed several arguments that got so heated it looked like a fight was about to erupt. People were shouting, demanding, and trumpeting their positions. Most were talking and few seemed to be listening.

I looked around and remembered I was in Annapolis. This is usually a pretty calm place. I walked up the street. The center of Annapolis is two circles next to each other, one with a church in the middle and another with the state house in the middle. (I have not yet figured out how they both manage to be the center of town.)

I found myself suddenly struck with the contrast. The calmness of the city versus the emotion on the streets. While I don't always agree with the decisions made in the state house (or in the church either) I have to say - It pretty much works. And somewhere along the way, people evidently do listen.


I reentered the protest area. There in the midst of this confusion was a lady interviewing people from both sides - people who had been shouting at each other. She was listening very earnestly. At first I thought she was from the media, but then found out she is just an Annapolitan out trying to listen to people. And she seemed to be trying hard to understand what people were really saying. It was impressive, even iconic, at that moment.


This has become something of a symbol of Annapolis to me. It gives some hope. You have to wonder what can come out of an environment where people are looking directly into your eye and asking "what are you saying?"

Maybe that is why the city seemed so upflapped by all the attention - because to many here, the real issue was not what it means to 'us' but what really gets said and what really gets heard and what gets done in this conference. I could hope that is the case.


That kind of attitude could help the situation in the Middle East if it were to spread. For that matter it could really help the situation on another Capitol Hill 30 miles to the west. Dare we hope?
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Here is the video. The woman doing the interviewing (and listening) is Erin Gormley of Annapolis.
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