As legislators, Legislative Disabilities Awareness Day gives us a chance to pause and take stock of the ways we can better support New Yorkers with different levels of ability. Every New Yorker deserves an opportunity to grow and thrive, and for this reason it is critical we continue to advocate for the disability community and legislate their needs with vigor.

In addition to New York’s awareness campaign, May is also Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. This year’s theme, “Beyond the Conversation,” is geared toward identifying next steps in the process to create more inclusive communities. This represents a great time for all of us to think about ways we can better serve those who may require special accommodations; and even better, it provides an impetus to take action.

The New York Legislature recognized Legislative Disabilities Awareness Day recently. As such, we passed several important pieces of legislation to improve and expand access to services utilized by the disability community as well as a bill to establish the Commission on the Deaf, Deafblind and Hard of Hearing. These are great steps toward making New York a more inclusive state, and I am looking forward to seeing how these measures materialize.

Unfortunately, a bill offered by the Assembly Minority Conference (A.3263, Jensen) was blocked by majority members before reaching the Assembly floor for a vote. The “Everyone Can Play” bill would establish a grant program to help local governments invest in and build accessible playgrounds and recreation facilities. In many cases, costs for local governments can be prohibitive, and creating a statewide grant program would help ensure the economic conditions of a given community would not stand in the way of accessible equipment for those who need it.

Our conference remains committed to creating a state that provides for everyone. The legislature recently put politics aside to honor the disabled community and recognize the importance of providing support, but actions need to be more than ceremonial. Reasonable measures to assist our friends and neighbors should transcend politics, rather than be mired down by political divides. To that end, we will continue to promote legislation that accounts for the needs of every New Yorker and strengthens our communities for citizens of every type. New York works best when we are all supported appropriately.                            

William (Will) A. Barclay, 54, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses all of Oswego County, as well as parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.

There are so many things I worry about these days. Are we going to default on our debts? Can we adapt to the accumulating impact of climate change? How are we going to handle the dangers posed by China and Russia? 

But bigger than all of those worries is this: Can we as a nation confront those challenges by arriving, together, at reasonable solutions? Or to put it another way, do we even know any more how to carry on a public dialogue about the issues we face and how to resolve them? 

Because I worry — a lot — that we’re losing our ability to engage in the reasoned dialogue that democracy demands of us. The evidence surrounds us: the hot-tempered dogmatism that’s rampant on social media, the take-no-prisoners rhetoric of cable commentators, the shallow political debate carried on by everyone from pundits trying to gin up an audience to politicians who should know better, the widespread impatience with others’ viewpoints, the shrill and even offensive language that permeates public debate… You know the problem as well as I do.

And it is a problem. If Americans lose faith that our democracy is up to the task of addressing our challenges — because we’re incapable of holding a discussion that isn’t distorted by spin, misleading studies, grassroots manipulation, untrustworthy media, and political leaders who wouldn’t publicly recognize a fact if it smacked them in the forehead — then the travails of the last few years will seem like a cakewalk.

So I have some suggestions. Because in the end, if we want the quality of public dialogue to improve, then it’s up to us to improve it — and then let our political leaders know that we expect more than political posturing that produces inadequate solutions to difficult problems. Living in a democracy takes work, and that applies to all of us, from voters who cast their ballot every few years to neighbors who roll up their sleeves and try to improve their communities, to elected officials whose job it is to decide the course of their town or state or country.

Here are a dozen basic principles we need to keep in mind:

1. Don’t fear differences or dissent. They’re inevitable, and they are vital to looking at challenges from all sides.

2. Advocacy and even conflict have their place in a democracy, but in the end, we resolve differences and break gridlock through discussion and deliberation.

3. Which means that the goal is not to highlight or inflame our political differences, but to resolve and reconcile them. The highest good should be to search for compromise, where everyone is at least a partial winner.

4. Remember that political differences may be stark, but that doesn’t mean they’re irreconcilable.

5. Focus on facts. They’re the starting point for levelheaded debate and effective policy. As citizens, it’s our job to find trustworthy sources of information, question our own biases, and discern when we’re being misled. As politicians, it’s our job to strive always to seek the truth about the facts.

6. View one another as neighbors, fellow community members, or colleagues who all want the same thing: what’s best for our country and for where we live. Find common ground and build trust from there.

7. It is always worth the time to understand others’ viewpoints — and to talk. You may not only find common ground, but also ways to improve your own ideas.

8. And when you do search for commonalities, talk about common concerns first and differences second.

9. Focus on the common good.

10. Do not speculate on rivals’ motivations or demonize them. Focus on their ideas — and see them as just as human as you are.

11. Sometimes, drama can be effective, but always maintain civility and convey respect for people who think differently from you.

12. Finally, always keep in mind that you may be wrong. The world is complicated and solutions to its challenges are never perfect or straightforward.        

Lee Hamilton, 92, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.