The role of the Facilitator

Wow, I must say all of these rather smart concepts are so foreign to me in my professional and personal life. I don't know why however, it seems so simple on the surface. But then again, in local politics I must agree that in many if not all cases, the decisions have already been made by the few politicians that run the Council, or they are not really open to any suggestions. Very practical of politicians to act that way, I guess. I look at this reading, and see all of the excellent pointers and wonder if we could see that ever in the formalities of the City Council meeting. Facilitated discussions can be rather interesting, especially if there are people that are flexible to having open minds and actually take things away and are not so polarized. It would seem that we as a nation need to reconsider all of our past methods of doing things and move forward in making changes and trying different approaches. It appears that this country is moving in a downward spiral, so what does it hurt to change things a bit??? Good luck to the happy person that gets to be the mediator in the middle. What a thankless job...