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All the year, Michigan Radio has been asking people across the state what three things they think we can all do to help improve Michigan. Today, Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition host Christina Shockley speaks with Kalamazoo-based author Bonnie Jo Campbell.

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All three of her ideas are about communication.

Her first idea is to listen to and engage with neighbors who do not agree with us politically.

“It seems like there is a lot of political strife these days and the more we encounter each other and communicate at home and in the workplace, the more likely we are to remain civil to one another in the political arena.” She hopes that attitude can filter up into the Michigan legislature to foment a more civil atmosphere.

Bonnie wants us to remember that Michigan is a state with “…a great wealth of diversity of political opinion, and that is a wealth, it’s not a liability, I think we need to remind ourselves that our political enemies are not truly our enemies. They’re often our friends.”

Her second idea is to communicate with and listen to teenagers. “Especially teenage girls, teenage girls are capable of great things, but they’re also filled with fear and anxiety, you know about how they look and where they belong, and there’s always a lot going on with friends and boyfriends. Girls are vulnerable and a whole bunch of them in Michigan still end up pregnant. And apart from whatever moral issues there are, teen pregnancy is expensive for the state, and teen moms tend to not get the education they need to succeed.”

Read more books is Campbell’s third idea.

“Reading is the best way of communicating with all the great thinkers from throughout history; and also the fun thinkers, the oddball thinkers who are thinking outside all the boxes way back when… It’s usually when you’ve been reading that you realize that there’s not a whole lot new under the sun, and the best thing is that if we’re all reading more, we’ll be smarter and happier, and more peaceful maybe. We’ve got great libraries, great bookstores in Michigan and our reading will encourage the kids around us to read, and then they’ll be smarter.”

She suggests that we might even end up reading with each other, and perhaps sometimes with those of different political persuasions, and in doing so we may find more common ground.