Civil Civic Discourse and the Orange Band Initiative

I've posted before about the Orange Band Initiative. It's an organization that seeks to foster civil, informative, scrupulously non-partisan public discussions of issues of local, national, and international interest. Orange Band was started entirely by students at James Madison University, and they've done a really outstanding job so far. The organization has started spreading to other campuses, and one of their public forums (a panel discussion by JMU students who had returned from military service in Iraq) was even broadcast on C-SPAN.

Orange Band works. These projects, panels, and public discussions really get students talking, and get them interested in policy. And the Orange Band crew is scrupulously objective and non-partisan. I was around this group for years before I could even tell what their personal political beliefs were like. And if the group gets out of balance one way or another, they actively seek new members from other parts of the political spectrum

As you may have ascertained, I'm going to urge you to cough up some dough. This is a great organization, and they've brought in a bit of grant money, but the folks keeping this thing going have graduated now, and they've had to take on real jobs, too. Without at least a trickle of funding, Orange Band is going to start to fizzle out.

This is where you come in. Even a few bucks would be significant at this point, so if you can spare a little, please do think about donating to them. The ideas motivating Orange Band are timely and important, and it'd be a real tragedy if such a promising organization died out in its infancy.

[In the interest of full disclosure, let me note that I'm an advisor to the group. Needless to say, I don't get any money--or anything else for that matter--from them. I just believe in their mission.]