A local group is giving people a chance to gather and talk about different ideas and topics — from national and world affairs to issues relevant in Leelanau County today, those who attend have the time and place to share their views with others willing to listen.
Northport’s Cracker Barrel, an informal community discussion group, is still going strong after a several year hiatus due the COVID-19 pandemic. They now meet every third Wednesday of the month from 10 to 11 a.m. at Trinity Church to bring together people that want to share various perspectives on a number of subjects. Ed and Kitty Dolan, who have lived in the area for the last decade, saw a need to start up the group once again and took over leadership in April of 2023. “It was originally started as an explicitly mens discussions group, but it now invites all newcomers, and Kitty has been working hard to raise the number of women who participate,” Ed said.
In January, group members kicked off their new schedule and discussed the War in Gaza. While the group acknowledged that it was a “fraught topic with a wide range of views,” and that “there was no way we are going to resolve the issue,” the goal was to aim for a “healthy exchange of views on matters like the historical and political context of the conflict, the appropriate role for the United States, and the range of possible outcomes.” Although Kitty relayed that they were a little nervous to discuss the topic in fear that it would become antagonistic, she said the conversation was well received and everyone participated and did their homework.
“I’d say there’s 15 to 20 men and two and four women here,” Kitty followed. “This group is supposed to talk about current issues and sort of from an academic rather than activist viewpoint… Ed set up some readings (for the last meeting) and other peoples suggested readings. A lot of those readings were read and talked about and it was quite nice. A few people said ‘wait a minute, how come we only get to talk for an hour.’ I think that’s a good sign.”
Some of the other conversation topics brought up last year include overcoming opposition to green energy, national budget priorities, affordable housing in Leelanau County, and American support for Ukraine.
“I like to try to keep it balanced between local and national issues,” Ed said. “We had a meeting last fall on local housing issues and we had someone come and talk about the Timber Shores project (New Community Vision) in the books…” “Our feeling is that people can feel free to propose topics and to propose speakers and readings and everything — it’s very open in that sense,” Kitty said. “I have to say, with our group stopping after an hour, the people who don’t want to leave tend to break up into small groups — I think that’s sort of cool, too.”
Ed said he thinks what keeps the group going after all these years is the fact that Northport is home to many retirees, some of whom had jobs previously as lawyers, engineers, business people and professors. Everyone who attends typically loves to conversate and meet others, sharing their experiences and knowledge from life and throughout their careers.
“Anybody can come, and we get people to drop in now and then, or people will bring house guests in the summer… of the hundred names we started with (in April 2023), I would say at least 30 of those have shown interest in the group,” Ed said.
“It’s not the kind of thing where you have to show up, and there’s no dues — right now it’s in a pretty open flexible phase,” Kitty added. “If you get a core group of people who just like to chat about any topic that is thrown out there, those are the kinds of people that sometimes come, and if they’ve done a little reading, it’s more than just the current opinion that they might have had at breakfast that morning.”
If interested in learning more about what the Cracker Barrel will or has discussed, go to their website https://npcrackerbarrel. blogspot.com/ or contact the group chairs Ed and Kitty at [email protected].
