A Platform for Courteous Talk

Controversial topics that spark sharply divided opinions and passionate disagreements are indeed plentiful today. What’s in short supply are public forums dedicated to promoting understanding through civil discussions of today’s hot-button issues. 

Fortunately for Marco residents, the island boasts just such a platform. Entitled Point-Counterpoint, the program is a series of moderated group discussions held twice a week, January through March, at the Marco Island Branch of the Collier County Public Library. 

“It can be national politics, international issues, Marco Island issues, it can be county issues, it can be Florida state issues,” explained Elliot Mascoop, who serves as moderator. “It can be anything of interest to the general public. That's what we do. We try to keep it pretty controlled.” 

Point-Counterpoint was started in 2011 by John Mariotti, who Mascoop said may again be involved in moderating sessions, and Wade Keller, who moved to Texas recently with his wife, Sue Keller. 

“The goal of this group is to get people to respectfully interact and express ideas that probably will not agree with ideas that other people have,” added Mascoop. “You can be passionate, but you cannot be inflammatory. You can't use any hate speech. It's to express ideas and to be able to further the public understanding of differing points of view. It’s really to get people to talk to each other in a humane, civilized way without getting intense, aggravated or abusive. And it works. We've done pretty well.” 

 Inflammatory, angry exchanges are not permitted and can lead to expulsion.  

Registration is not required for the sessions which run from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. Attendance is limited to a maximum of 25 participants.  

“We have people come who want to talk about anything political or societally that would be of interest to the general public,” said Mascoop. “They typically jot down on a piece of paper what their topic will be. Then people are invited to come to the podium and talk about their topic.” 

Speakers can express themselves, uninterrupted, for five minutes. Next, they field comments and counterpoints from the audience. Each person responding gets two minutes to state their viewpoint.  

“After that, we give the person who made the presentation another two minutes to refute or to counter the counterpoint,” said Mascoop. “It can go back and forth a couple of times, usually for about 15 minutes, then we call up another person who wants to discuss another issue.” 

The group moderator acts as the facilitator, interjecting themselves only when necessary, he said. 

“I’m not there to give an opinion,” added Mascoop. “My job is, if anybody expresses an incorrect fact, I'll correct it. Only if it's a blatant factual error would I get involved other than moderating.” 

He said some attendees prefer to only observe because they fear embarrassing themselves if they participate. He stressed that the moderator is there to ensure that people should feel secure in expressing their opinions.  

“That's okay,” said Mascoop about those who’d rather not join in. But that's not really the point of the group, though. The point of the group is being interactive and participating, I'm not going to tell people who don't want to participate to not come. But it's a more enriching, fulfilling experience when people are willing to participate.”  

For more information about Point-Counterpoint, please contact Mascoop at 239-298-1339.The Marco Island Branch of the Collier County Public Library is located at 210 S. Heathwood Drive.