The Kettering Foundation invited Karen Coleman of the Duval County Health Department and I to their Deliberative Democracy Exchange.

The purpose of the Kettering Foundation is to observe and learn from experiments happening around the world-- experiments in how people come together as a community. Kettering is most interested in how people make choices that inform their collective actions. For example, how do communities recovering from Katrina come together to chart their futures?

The President and CEO of Kettering, David Mathews, opened the plenary with some remarks about democracy. He said that democracy, contrary to popular opinion, did not originate in Greece. It has its roots in  Egypt and the concept of lots of people coming together to make collective decisions for the benefit of all exists in the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Also, he said that Kettering Foundation does not believe democracy can be imported or exported. The only sure way to cultivate democracies is to build on democratic traditions that all cultures already have.

According to Kettering's research, the quintessential experience of citizenship is not voting. It is making a collective decision with with other people. Huh. That means JCCI is the quintessential citizenship experience for everyone in Northeast Florida.