Civility, or the lack of it, in the current political climate was the focus of a town meeting at the Ohio Statehouse on March 18.

Sponsored by The Ohio Civility Consortium and the Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer Legacy Committee of the Ohio State Bar Association, the meeting brought together elected officials, members of the public, and the media to focus on solutions.

“We are in a presidential election year. Can we do something to change the way Ohioans experience this next presidential election? Can we do something about making this discourse more civil and more focused on the substance of politics?” Moyer Legacy Committee Chair Barbara Howard said.

Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown was among the state and national speakers at the event.

“We can’t get to a place where the only people we talk to are people like us. We’ve got to move forward to a place where we can have discourse and have disagreement without being disagreeable,” she told the group.

In addition to the speakers, breakout sessions, and panel discussions, the event featured interactive sessions where the attendees and the public watching the live stream on the Ohio Channel were able to use their cell phones to participate in the discussion.

Many of the sessions from “Can We Talk? Moving from Discord to Dialogue” are available on the Ohio Channel’s website.