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America's founding generation started with a bold and audacious premise - one entirely new in recorded history:  That a diverse people could self-govern.  To achieve that nearly impossible notion, they imagined a country where - in Alexander Hamilton's words "the constant clashing of opinion" would serve to strengthen the union rather than weaken it.  In it, the very existence of people who disagreed with one another served to strengthen solutions, protect the constitutional rights of those who didn't hold a majority view and build a marketplace of ideas where the best ideas came of the struggle built into the American system of governance.

Today, we find an America that is diverse beyond our founders' imagination.  But there is a broad sense that the legacy our founders left us is no longer functioning as intended.  The ties that bind us together across our differences seem to be fraying.  And the conversation of our democracy is increasingly absent, replaced by feuding tribes of people who seem to hate each other and believe their political foes represent a basic threat to democracy with which they can't negotiate.

E pluribus unum - out of many, one - is the challenging charge left us by our forefathers.  Dinner at the Square will begin this season with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt's groundbreaking - and entertaining - insights on the cause of our national divisiveness (not what you think), we'll continue through the complex issues swirling around women in the political debate recently, and we'll end the season on the hot-button topic of immigration and the broader issues of how we manage divisions along nationality, race, creed, and color.

We hope you'll join us for what we hope will be a unique American conversation.