Intractable Conflict
Mediation Services of Adams County Inc. is a full-service community mediation center that’s been active in Adams County since the 1990s! We have seen some disputes and we have helped people in conflict over the years. Who better to help you with your conflict then people who aren’t intimidated by it, or who feel it is unhealthy? On the contrary, we believe that conflict is necessary in our relationships and in our community. The problem lies in how conflict is resolved. We must do better, people.
Divorce, relationship and family, community, landlord/tenant, small claims, HOA, and restorative justice are a few of the conflicts we have experience in. We use transformative mediation to in all these cases because we find it is the most empowering form of mediation in use to date. We study, we train, we listen to people for hours in their deepest conflict.
Why do we do this work? Why do we willingly listen to people fight? We do it because someone must. Our nation is at odds. These nationwide conflicts don’t just start out of the blue. They are fostered by people at the grassroots level who weren’t taught how to deal with their own internal or personal conflict. How could they possibly deal in a healthy manner with truly significant matters when the costs are much higher than you took my parking space? We are plagued today with intractable conflict.
We keep fighting over the same things, don’t we? The same issues that we heard about as children are not resolved. These are complicated concerns that are difficult or impossible to solve equitably. Abortion, LGTBQ+ rights, race, governmental control, who pays what in tax, school curriculum, climbing on the monuments on the battlefield, removing monuments from public areas, the price of fuel, the price of eggs. I am sure you could add to the list. These unresolved issues are not just talking points. They are points of contention that lie beneath civility.
Over the next couple years, MSAC will be involved with Urban Rural Action in an initiative entitled Uniting to Prevent Targeted Violence. We must get to the bottom of this intractable conflict if we are to keep people from turning on each other. What causes this? Why is the conflict some of us feel so intractable that we target others with our hate? And our violence? Why as a people would we prefer to not compromise, or settle for something less than we feel we deserve?
Uniting to Prevent Targeted Violence (UPTV) (www.uraction.org) is a non-partisan program that will bring together 28 Pennsylvanians in Adams, Dauphin, Franklin, and York Counties to work across divides to prevent targeted violence. We have our group of 28! We will meet for the first time in Gettysburg in February. We will need you. We will need to hear from you. We will be open to your ideas.