The government should educate the public by neutrally sponsoring regular debates on topics relating to current national and international issues. These public meetings could be either free or low-cost and could be held at existing public school facilities which would also provide the additional advantage of making the community feel closer and more connected to each other.

The government would have a representative whose job it would be, not so much to sell the government’s viewpoint, but to educate the public about the facts of the issue. The representative’s job would be to make sure that all sides discuss an issue with civility, back up their ideas with facts, and correct any errors when they occur. Any member of the public could sign up in advance to make speeches or could ask questions of those who have spoken or debated.

The schedule of topics for such meetings could be decided by a committee compiling and reviewing recommendations from the public. The scheduled public speakers would also be selected by this committee based primarily on their degree of civil discourse shown in the past or promised.

These debates could also be aired live or prerecorded on the internet and/or on local radio stations, including micro radio stations, so that the entire community would have easy access to this educational information.

An additional benefit to this kind of setup is that a much larger number of individuals would have an opportunity to practice their public speaking skills and study issues of relevance, as well.