Here’s an idea for the North Carolina Leadership Forum that Rob Christensen wrote about this week.

The Forum is a group of prominent leaders from both sides of the political aisle. Rob described its mission this way: “Why not get North Carolinians of all political stripes together to have conversations, to better understand one another’s point of view, and see whether there is any common ground about how to make life better in the state?”

Good start. Right direction. And how about going a bit farther?

The Forum also should hear from – and give a microphone to – people who are hurting, who are angry and who are driving this year’s presidential campaign.

It would help the Republicans to hear from an African-American citizens’ group in Southeast Raleigh about the young man who was shot and killed by a police officer – and the anger, despair and hopelessness that people in that community live with every day. Octavia Rainey will be happy to organize it.

In turn, the Democrats should meet with a group of laid-off, struggling former factory workers and their families from one of the Piedmont communities that has been decimated by the global economy, including how they feel about politicians who they see as taking away their guns, chipping away at their religious faith and scheming to take their money and give it to people who won’t work.

It could be a healthy reminder to us all of what Malcolm X wrote more than 50 years ago: “I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.”