Foes, now friends take political peace tour to Stony Brook University

For two years, Fred Guttenberg, a gun-safety advocate whose daughter died in the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting, and Joe Walsh, a former Republican member of the House from Illinois, considered each other enemies.

They were openly hostile on X, when it was known as Twitter, arguing the merits of gun-control legislation.

Then something rare occurred, at least by the current standards of political discourse. Walsh reached out to Guttenberg in a peacemaking gesture and the political opposites evolved from antagonists to friends,

On Tuesday night, the pair stopped at Stony Brook University as part of a 21-campus college tour that frames their newfound friendship as hope, and evidence, that there is still a place for respectful political debate in a nation divided two weeks before the presidential election.

"Young people ... are scared to death to engage with people who disagree," Walsh said at the Stony Brook Medicine event, part of he and Guttenberg's "Two Dads Defending Democracy" tour.

"The fear among young people on college campuses is palpable," Walsh added. "They’re afraid to voice their opinions, they’re afraid to sit down with people who disagree with them, they’re afraid to debate ... That’s blown me away."

Guttenberg said  many young people he and Walsh have encountered on their tour are itching to engage with those they oppose politically. But, he added, they feel as if their campuses are not "giving them the tools and the education to learn how to do it."

Stony Brook Medicine's program in public health sponsored Tuesday evening’s event. A second one is scheduled for Wednesday.

After the Parkland High School shooting in 2018, Guttenberg said, his mission was to break up the "gun lobby" and challenge politicians looking to stifle his efforts, including Walsh. But after Walsh made an effort to show Guttenberg respect and expressed interest in more productive communication, and was also looking to salvage to his reputation after being labeled a "divisive political" figure, they listened to one another for the first time.

"We had dinner ... He realized I wasn’t a gun grabber and I realized he wasn’t OK with people dying from gun violence," Guttenberg said. "We didn’t all of a sudden agree on everything, but we stopped attacking each other's motives."

Like most previous stops on the tour, they urged young people to not only engage with one another, but to vote. Despite standing on opposite sides of the political spectrum, both have previously expressed their support for Vice President Kamala Harris, although neither gave the Democratic presidential nominee an explicit endorsement.

"After this election, no matter who wins, this country is going to be at each other’s throats," Walsh said. "That’s what we’re trying to address."

The overall message Guttenberg and Walsh sent Tuesday night — that Americans are far more than the sum of their political parts — caught on with Cathryn Carmona, a public health student at Stony Brook who attended the event along with about 100 other students, faculty and community members.

"I think a lot of people find it hard to come to a compromise when it comes to politics," Carmona said. "But they made it possible, so why can’t everyone else?"

The discussion can serve as a model for how Long Islanders with opposing political views can discuss hot button political issues, such as gun violence and reproductive rights, without it resulting in a verbal war, said Lisa Benz Scott, professor at Stony Brook Medicine and executive director of the program in public health.

"During this preelection period, we felt it was very important to model dialogue across differences, especially when it comes to common ground on building healthy communities," Benz Scott said. "We chose these speakers because they come from very different political perspectives, but they have found a way to have dialogue that’s productive around big issues that affect the health of populations and communities."