Creating Dialogue: Kacie Cassar, Maryland

This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Maryland Voices initiative at Maryland Humanities, specifically to supplement the "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America" traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program. This collection, made up of stories of first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 24, showcases the experiences of young people as they wrestled with the 2020 presidential election, issues around social justice, the environment, immigration, and the pandemic. 

Kacie Cassar (00:00): My name is Kacie Cassar. I am originally from Lansdale, Pennsylvania. I currently go to school at Salisbury University down on the Eastern Shore in Maryland. I am a current graduate student studying history. My focus is on public history, as well as I am the graduate assistant for PACE, which is our Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement here at Salisbury University.

Kacie Cassar (00:23): I feel, especially in this year, it's been really difficult because there are extremists on both sides and they've created this cancel culture, that if you're not for one or the other, you're no longer in their life, which is really hard and difficult. So, having my viewpoints on areas, I honestly didn't want to share them with people because I didn't want to lose people in my life. I was honestly silent a lot of times when I'm having discussions, which I know isn't the best thing to do, but also in my situations, I didn't want to lose people.

Kacie Cassar (00:58): But if a dialogue were to happen, of course, I would have any conversations should happen, you should always hear both sides and kind of... Not saying you want to change their mind or have your mind changed, because everyone's lots of times stuck in their ways, but just being able to listen and have those conversations and hear where they're coming from, have them hear where you're coming from.

Kacie Cassar (01:17): It just has... The divide has become so deep that it's really hard to be in the center, because whether you're being very negative or positive about something, someone else being opposite, you being in the middle upsets everyone. So, it's very difficult. And I feel everyone's just kind of stuck in their ways, which is unfortunate. There's not distance which there should be, it's always that's wrong and this is right, or this is right and that's wrong. It's really hard to change that when you have so many people supporting both sides.

Asset ID: 2021.03.12.a
Themes: Civic engagement, extremists, cancel culture, dialogue, listening, conversations, divisions, polarization, discourse
Date recorded: January 28, 2021
Length of recording: 01:55 m
Related traveling exhibition: Voices and Votes: Democracy in America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Edward H. Nabb Research Center, Salisbury University, in partnership with Maryland Humanities
More information: https://www.mdhumanities.org/programs/museum-on-main-street/2021-2022-tour/