Please join in the monthly conversation experiment. This month, we are looking beneath our opinions to find and articulate how our values influence our point of view.

Here’s this month’s prompt:

We all have certain belief statements that guide our interpretation of the world around us. They form the basis of what we think of as right or wrong. We invite you to use specific examples of issues in the news – the taking down of Confederate statues, sending our children back to school, or any other current event – to prompt you to explore the belief statement, the “This I Know,” underneath how you view the issue.

Send your submissions to copyeditor@riverreporter.com by 1 p.m. on Friday, August 28.

Here’s a small example:

This I know:

Better outcomes are found when people who don’t agree explore and hammer out a solution that works for the common good.

Therefore: when one side excludes the other, the outcome will not produce an equitable or well examined solution.

This frames how I view politics in general.