By Clark

My Kentucky Kitchen Table took place in the city of Owensboro, KY. The city of Owensboro is the 4th largest city in the state of Kentucky with a population just under 60,000. Five people and myself from this city took part in a roundtable discussion after a meal. The participants at the dinner where Katherine, Lisa, Debbie, Jenny, and David. Katherine is a dental student who is living in a bigger city than she is used to, a Baptist, and has conservative leaning views. Lisa is a single parent who works full time, a Baptist, and has conservative leaning views. Debbie is a grandmother, a widow, a Baptist, retired worker, and has conservative values. She also helps take care of her mother. Jenny is a grandmother, retired pharmaceutical worker, a Methodist, and has liberal leaning values. David is a grandfather, a veteran, a retired school administrator, a Methodist, and has liberal leaning values. The members of this group all enjoyed the community of Owensboro and Jenny and David who had moved to Owensboro over twenty years ago also enjoyed the community. The meal took place in the home of Debbie in her dining room, which was used to accommodating a group of people of this size. These where the individuals who participated in my Kentucky Kitchen Table and the setting of where it took place.
After everyone had finished their main meal we started the discussion on what we thought citizenship meant to us besides voting, paying taxes, and following laws. After a few more questions it became apparent that they based their answers on their life experiences and beliefs. For example, many individuals in the group based their answers on their religious beliefs and Christion values. This would go on to affect their answers to later question such as how our religious or spiritual identity relate to how we treat others and how it related to how we see ourselves as citizens. Another reoccurring theme that kept appearing throughout the discussion was past experiences that the individuals had. For example, Jenny and David described their experiences during tail end of the second world war to illustrate how it developed their thought on what citizenship meant to them and how other parts of their life contributed to their role as citizens. Another example of experience was whenever Debbie visited other nations such as China. Her experiences in China would help her develop an understanding of what it means to be a citizen and another theme that will be discussed later, rights. Also, another reoccurring theme was that even though they believed in helping others, a common consensus was that they wouldn’t openly give advice to a neighbor unless directly asked. The reasoning among the older individuals at the table was that there was an age difference between them and their neighbors, which caused a disconnect between them. Although the advice they would give to neighbors and individuals running for office would be just to have common sense and for individuals running for office was to remember the people they represent. A big theme that a majority the participants mentioned during the discussion was rights. To them being a citizen to the United Stated gave them rights that they believed were protected as citizens. The most important right to most of them was the freedom of religion. As stated earlier, Debbie developed the sense of the importance of rights from her mission trip to China. During this trip she noticed the difference between the rights of citizens in America and the rights of citizens in China. This helped me understand and create the theme that a lot of people tie in their religious or spiritual identity into how the see citizenship and how they see themselves as citizens. Another big answer to the questions was the idea of connection. Connection was one of the big things in the world today that many of groups saw as important, but to many it was also a double edge sword. We are living in an age where we have instant access to a large amount of information and individuals, but sometimes we lose the connection to those around us. An example that they gave of this was that they would see people at a table together at a restaurant and they would be on their phones the entire time instead of verbally communicating with each other. This was how connection to them was both the best and worst thing in the world today. These were some of themes that emerged throughout the discussion.
As the discussion continued on as many of the participants began to describe their own communities. The biggest change in community was with Katherine. Katherine had recently moved from Owensboro, a population below sixty thousand, to Louisville, a population over six hundred thousand, and how the communities were different. For her, she mostly only interacted with individuals and the community where she lived. In a similar fashion the others also describe how they only interacted with individuals from their community that shared similar beliefs, ideas, and characteristics. It is much easier to notice this idea of sticking to individuals who are similar to each other, where there are more people like them. This idea relates to a reading in class, Exit West, where one of the main characters wants to live closer and around people from his same background and feels out of place at the current place where they are at. This was how community contributed to how individuals saw themselves as citizen and their role as a citizen.
Many of the individuals at the discussion saw how their jobs related to their role as a citizen. The most obvious individual who saw how his job related to his role as a citizen was David. David, who was a veteran and a retired school administrator, talked about how as a veteran he served his country and other citizens, and as a school administrator gave back and helped shaped the next generation of citizens. The rest of the group also mentioned that their jobs gave back to the community they worked in and provided a good or a service to the rest of the citizens. This was how the individuals saw how their jobs related to their role as a citizen.
From this discussion I learned some things from the answers that were given to the questions. One thing that I took away from the discussion was that individuals tended to base their roles as citizens based on their religious identity, their experiences, and their jobs. I learned that it is sometimes more difficult to connect with neighbors if there is not something that both have in common. The differences that can cause this can be from age, religious identity, and others. This causes neighbors to be reluctant to get to know each other and reluctant to give advice to someone they don’t know that well. Another thing I learned was that people have similarities and generally have similar or close to the same thoughts on topics. These were some of the things that I learned during the discussion.
Also, during the discussion a few things that relate to what we learned in class appeared. One idea from class that the discussion related to was how do we live well together. The discussion related to this main idea from the class because it helped illustrate some factors that can affect how we view this question. An example from earlier can be where they don’t feel comfortable giving advice to a neighbor, unless directly asked for. These factors did not stop them from living well together with their neighbors, but they could have been living better with their neighbors. Another aspect of the discussion that related to class was how individuals developed morality and beliefs. For many in the discussion, their religious or spiritual identity was what created the foundation for what they believed citizenship meant to them. They used their religious or spiritual identity to describe how they should treat others, what should be done in the community, and what their citizenship allows them to do. This was how the discussion related to what we had learned in class.
Overall the discussion for the Kentucky Kitchen Table was very good. It gave me insight into what individuals used to determine what citizenship means to them, how they view their role as a citizen, and what they do as citizens. From this discussion the main influence for individuals in how they viewed citizenship and their role was based on their religious or spiritual identity. Even someone’s experiences can shape how they view and what should be done around the country and the community. From the discussion it was observed how some of the best things in the world can also be the worst. Another aspect derived from the discussion was on how community shaped our roles and views of citizenship. Also, what was discussed provided more insight into what was discussed during the class and gave real life experience to what we discuss in class. This was my Kentucky Kitchen Table discussion.