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Where Will You Stand?
Let’s start with Monday’s news. In his endorsement of Barack Obama, Senator Ted Kennedy sought to position the young candidate alongside his brothers, John and Bobby, both of whom sought to usher in a new day in politics, one infused with service and idealism rather than triangulation and fear. Now, once again, there’s something undeniable emerging across the nation: a new breed of leader who sees public life and politics differently. Two basic questions stand before us with concern to this new breed of leader, and only you and I and others like us hold the answers to these questions.
Whether Barack Obama is one of these new leaders remains to be seen. But there is a growing cadre of such leaders dotting the American landscape including, for instance, mayors such as Cory Booker (Newark), Adrian Fenty (DC), Jay Williams, (Youngstown) and, yes, Michael Bloomberg (New York City). In my essay Make Hope Real, I write about this new breed of leaders as:
“…people who have highly pragmatic approaches to policy, who seek to find ways to make public life and politics work rather than to disparage it, who vigilantly look for opportunities to engage people in the ongoing process of governing and improving their lives, who try to avoid hyperbolic and heated rhetoric.”
If we truly want to usher in a new day in public life and politics, each of us will need to answer two fundamental questions:
1. Will we stand by these new leaders when they come under fire? At issue is whether or not we literally stand beside these leaders and vouch for their integrity, even when we do not agree with a particular position. Will we say clearly that, we and others will not stand for scurrilous and mean-spirited attacks against them?
Our willingness to stand beside this new breed of leader is essential if we want the trail-blazers to succeed and additional individuals to step forward. The task before us is to create the conditions for the new breed of leader to emerge, engage, and sustain their efforts. Each of us, hand-in-hand with others, can make this happen.
2. Will we assume our own role as public innovators? No matter how good or inspiring an elected leader might be, no matter how much hope they might engender, the reality is that the majority of the actual work to be done in our communities and the nation must be done by us.
Each of us must continue our own good work, but we must also cultivate new public innovators so that we have more public allies; create new pockets of change that ripple out and produce greater impact; and transform various groups and institutions into catalytic, boundary-spanning organizations that can incubate change and bring people together. If we are to make real the hope of this new breed of leaders, then we must do this.In recent weeks I’ve received a lot of phone calls, emails and notes from people asking me if I’m excited about how the current presidential race is unfolding, with its emphasis on “hope and change,” long-standing hallmarks of our work here at the Institute. Yes, I’m excited about the growing sense of possibility, but I am also old enough now to know that we cannot pin our hopes for change on one individual in the White House. For presidents come and go; the true measure of hope is whether it resides in the houses of people all across
Let us seize this moment in history and support the new breed of leader emerging across America, and take our own place in this unfolding story to make hope real in all our communities.
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The State of Our Union - Listening to Nobody
I watched President Bush and Governor Kaine last night in total shock and awe. Surely, they can’t believe the American people buy what they’re peddling. And members of Congress who keep howling and standing and clapping, surely they must know their posturing is silly. What about the real America?
There were three phrases that framed last night’s speeches: “There is no honor in retreat;” America is a “hopeful society;” and there is “no higher calling than serving others.” Wow! Too bad each of these phrases was maligned, abused, mangled, and appropriated.
The problem is this: I’ve crisscrossed the nation now six times in the last 15 years, and these three phrases, as they were used, simply distort people’s reality. Let’s take each phrase one at a time:- “There is no
honor in retreat” – true enough. This
phrase framed a huge portion of the
president’s message. Unfortunately, much of
America is in retreat. As I’ve outlined in
Hope Unraveled, Americans have told me
that over the last 15 years they have retreated
from public life and politics into close-knit
circles of family and friends. They have done
so because they feel their reality is not
reflected in public life and politics and that
it is often purposefully distorted by, among
others, politicians seeking their own gain.
The phrase, “There is no honor in retreat” should have applied here at home. In fact, it reminded me of when someone turns a phrase on you in an argument – trying to get the upper hand. Last night the president should have engaged Americans in a conversation about how we can reverse our own retreat – here at home. - America is a “hopeful society” – not
in the way this phrase distorted people’s
reality last night. In many respects,
people’s hope has greatly diminished over the
past 15 years or so. Too much “false hope”
is peddled in our society – overblown
expectations, inflated achievements,
unrealistic timelines, and manufactured heroes.
Americans want to be hopeful – but that will
require reflecting their reality, engaging them
on a purposeful path, and acknowledging the
real challenges they face in their daily lives.
People will not be hopeful simply because we proclaim that they are, or because there is a litany of new proposals on the table. Understanding people’s reality, accurately reflecting it, and showing how one’s ideas relate to that reality are all necessary steps to move forward. Few of these could be heard last night. - “There is no higher calling than serving
others” – yes, but too bad that neither the
president nor the governor really talked about
this. They discussed what government needs to
do, what the private sector needs to do, but
never really what each of us as citizens need
to do. Let’s face it; there was no higher
calling last night. Instead, the call went out
that each of us should expect to get all we
want, when we want it, all at a low cost –
and with good, government efficiency!
A hopeful society, a society not in retreat – these require each of us to step up and engage as citizens, to think about our common challenges, to consider how we each must contribute, to see how we are inextricably connected to one another.
I know that Americans want a hopeful society. They believe they must not be in retreat. And they also believe that serving others is a higher calling. So why don’t we start to truly act on those sentiments?
What did you think of the speeches last night? I’d love to hear your thoughts. - “There is no
honor in retreat” – true enough. This
phrase framed a huge portion of the
president’s message. Unfortunately, much of
America is in retreat. As I’ve outlined in
Hope Unraveled, Americans have told me
that over the last 15 years they have retreated
from public life and politics into close-knit
circles of family and friends. They have done
so because they feel their reality is not
reflected in public life and politics and that
it is often purposefully distorted by, among
others, politicians seeking their own gain.