Join us for this year's Constitution Day celebration, “Making Our Voices Heard,” on Sept. 14th. As we did last year, we will be holding deliberative roundtables around an issue of importance to our democracy.

This year's deliberation will wrestle with questions surrounding the issue of immigration. Whom do we welcome? Can we balance fairness and security? How do we strengthen our common bonds? Our conversations will be framed around these three questions, but you are encouraged to bring your own ideas.

This will not be a debate. While debates can serve a useful purpose, the structure of a debate assumes that all the wisdom is in the front of the room. This will be a deliberative conversation, with the assistance of trained moderators who will help us to stay on track, but more importantly, will work to ensure that every voice is heard. That is why your participation is important.

While the result of our deliberations will be shared with both the community and our elected officials, you might legitimately ask, "what difference will this make?"

My answer: if nothing else, we need the practice of having civil conversations - and to demonstrate that such conversations are possible - and potentially productive. If we are to fulfill Lincoln's vision of a "government by the people," we need to exercise our citizenship skills.

Besides, it might be fun!

Our hope is that you are willing to invest a few hours of your time in support of practical democracy.