Three years later, project to bridge political divide between residents in rural Massachusetts and Eastern Ky. still going

Thanks to modern technology, the pandemic hasn't stopped a cross-cultural effort meant to bridge the political divide between two rural communities, one liberal and one conservative.

Three years ago, a handful of rural residents from communities in Kentucky and Massachusetts began meeting to see if they could find common ground. Hands Across the Hills was established just after the 2016 election when liberal residents of Leverett, Mass., reached out to residents of Whitesburg, Ky., because they wanted to better understand not just why people voted for Trump, but Appalachian culture overall. 

The initiative started out with in-person visits with home stays, local field trips, and lots of sharing and listening, and has continued via Zoom meetings and phone calls throughout the pandemic, according to CBS News, which has a video update of the project (above).

Paula Green, a Leverett resident who has led similar cross-cultural efforts for decades in war-torn areas like Bosnia and Rwanda, leads the project along with her Whitesburg counterpart Gwen Johnson. In a recent column, Green cautioned that initiatives like Hands Across the Hills are illuminating but not a large-scale solution: "Dialogue groups help but are too small to balance out the political rewards of those who stoke hatred for their own gain. When I consider where we are as a country today, it seems clear that my conservative correspondent, our friends in Kentucky, and millions of others are telling us that our country needs an overhaul. Too many people are hurting, and the solution is not just interpersonal, as important as that is. What is needed is a new vision for our economic, political, and social policies, all of which are on life support. Until we get these structures right, blaming and demonizing each other provides too easy a reach, an outlet for our frustration."