Our Dialogue - 'In Search of Common Ground'

'In search of Common Ground' is one of the many classes on offer at the Common Ground on the Hill summer school in the USA. It is a small but a critically important element of the whole event and encourages dialogue and builds understanding on issues related to race, ethnicity and social exclusion.

At Common Ground Scotland, we have developed our dialogue sessions in various directions. We initially used 'Robert Burns meets Martin Luther King' as our theme but we have found that our dicussions have covered a range of interesting subjects.

Robert Burns meets Martin Luther King

Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it yet for a' that,
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet, for a' that,
That man to man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.

Robert Burns

"I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American meaning of its creed. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but the content of their character."

Martin Luther King

At Common Ground on the Hill in the USA, they used several historic figures as a focus for their dialogue, including Martin Luther King Jnr and Malcolm X, men who took radically different approaches to the evil of racism. At Common Ground Scotland, we initially used 'Robert Burns meets Martin Luther King' as our theme but we have found that our dicussions have since covered a range of interesting subjects.

Burns was ahead of his time in much of his thinking and his work has obviously made a great impact on the world stage. One of his best known songs is "A Man's a Man for a' That" written against the backdrop of a revolution of thought throughout Europe and the colonies.

The signatories of the American Declaration of Independence would have been familiar with his views and any current dialogue on social inclusion would be enriched by his ideas. At Common Ground on the Hill, Scotland we will seek contemporary relevance with our dialogue. We will encourage some of the current generation of song writers and poets to write 'in the tradition of Robert Burns' on issues facing Scotland in the twenty first century.