Jean Bourg and Brad Sealfon

Jean Bourg (JB) introduces herself, notes it is an election today.

Brad Sealfon (BS) introduces himself.

Participants share why they wanted to participate in a One Small Step (OSS) conversation.

BS asks JB about doing something similar to OSS at the Unity Library.

JB talks about the challenge of ensuring conversations stay civil, and communication strategies.

Participants discuss how to find common ground with others.

BS asks if the Unity Library has become more politicized. JB says no, and that she tries to be very careful about balancing books on the shelves and the kinds of programming they do.

BS talks about being involved in radical environmental activism in the past, having a moral compass, values.

JB talks about being involved in town politics, select board. Participants go on to talk about small-town municipal governments.

BS makes comment about experimenting with different ways to create unity and build community.

BS reads JB's bio and asks her to talk about her upbringing.

JB tells BS about growing up in Port Allen, Louisiana, a poor town father being chief of police, French Acadian/Cajun influences.

BS asks if JB was looking for a ticket out of Port Allen. JB says yes, and talks about entering a convent when she was 17.

BS talks about dropping out of college at 17, and growing up in an affluent suburban community outside of NYC. BS asks Jean about growing up gay in the rural South in the 1950s and if her sexual orientation was part of what led her to join a convent at such a young age.

JB talks about meeting serious, intellectual people at the convent.

Participants talk about their relationships to religion and faith.

JB talks about the political makeup of Unity, Maine and community building through church thrift stores.

JB reads BS's bio and asks how his values relate to his experience as an environmental activist. BS talks about his upbringing, family, deep ecology.

JB asks BS about being a selectman. BS talks about moving to Prospect, being a traveler looking for a landing zone, building an off-grid cabin in the woods with his own two hands, and his relationship with neighbors during the harsh winter. He talks about getting involved with the select board on the Comprehensive Plan Committee and his hopes for his term as a select board member.

Participants talk about planning boards in small towns.

BS asks JB about who has influenced her. JB talks about John Piotti from Maine Farmland Trust as well as parish priests in her hometown, and their work on desegregation.

JB talks about her father, John F. Kennedy, growing up in a family of six, and Acadian identity.

BS asks JB if she's read Mill Town by Kerri Arsenault.

BS asks JB if she has kids, JB talks about her decisions around not having children.

JB talks about her hope to pass on intact institutions to younger generations, including the library.

JB talks about libraries as a nexus for resources and community-building activities.

BS talks about his influences: including Captain Planet, his father, and Douglas Adams.

Participants talk about their personal, political values, have a discussion about what "Eat the rich" really means.

Participants ask each other if anything about them surprised each other.