Home > Blogs > About Rich's Work > Rich's Blog: Redeeming Hope
Printable Version
Tell a friend
-
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.
-
Five Personal Questions for Public Innovators
This week I am getting ready for our upcoming Public Innovators Lab, which always makes me go back to first principles about what it takes to make hope real in communities. At the Lab, we guide participants through key Harwood Institute ideas, frameworks and tools that we’ve developed over the years, and which people will take back home to accelerate their own efforts to create change and hope. But, no matter the topic, what is always present in the room is a set of personal questions people bring with them to the Lab, questions that sit in the back of their minds waiting to be answered. These are questions that each of us hope to answer.
It is only over the last 20 years that these questions have come into sharp focus for me. There are of five of them in all, each one speaking to us as individuals, to our souls and hearts, to our appetites to make the world a better place. Listen to these questions as you read them to yourself, and see how they sit with you, what they summon within you, what they compel you to consider or do.1. How can I make the leaps necessary to have the kind of impact and life I seek?
2. How can I come together with others to make a lasting difference?
3. How can my public work reflect the best of my personal values and aspirations?
4. How can I unleash the potential within myself and others?
5. What path should I take – and how do I find the courage and humility to take this path?
These questions emerge in different settings and from different perspectives. Sometimes they bubble up in conversations as people tell you about their proudest public or civic victory; other times they can be heard in someone expressing lingering doubts about whether real change is even possible; still other times they are reflected in people’s struggle to balance their need to make a difference with the need to make time for family and friends.
In the Lab, as in other Institute work, we will actively explore these five questions; we will keep them in mind as we consider what it means to create change and hope in our communities and organizations – and in our own lives. It’s clear to me that neither I nor anyone else can give an individual the answers to these questions. Each of us must come to our own answers, for ourselves. Each of us must examine the fit between the aspirations we hold, the realities we face, and who we are.
So, this year, as in previous years, I am enthused about engaging with the key ideas, frameworks, and tools in the Lab – there’s something very rewarding in the discipline that goes into that work. What’s more, I am looking forward to exploring these five personal questions, and how each of us can fulfill our work as change agents and make our own way as individuals. -
Trumping the "Race Card"
The news cycle the past few days has been dominated by the Clinton and Obama camps arguing over race and its role in this campaign and
I have written here before about race, racism, and race relations. I do so today knowing that whatever I say could easily be twisted or misconstrued. That’s the risk we all take when writing about important and deeply emotional issues. But something must be said.
Some argue that Senator Clinton has injected race into the campaign solely for political gain. Meanwhile, some writers and pundits have suggested that Barack Obama has studiously avoided talking about race so he might transcend race, or make himself more acceptable to whites. Indeed, in last Sunday's Washington Post article, David Greenberg wrote:“Obama – whose strongest appeal has thus far been to upscale whites – allows those whites to feel good about themselves and their country. He lets them imagine that a nation founded for freedom yet built on slavery can be redeemed by pulling a lever.”
If Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to end their current tearing of the fabric of this campaign, they should pick a time, meet together, and emerge to declare to voters and the nation as a whole that they acknowledge that race and racism is an issue in America, that the process of healing will take some time, and that in this campaign they pledge to not use race and racism as a ploy to collect votes. They would also make note of these additional realities:1. No candidate, no matter how gifted or skilled, can through their campaign offer redemption to a nation on its stained history. Surely, the candidate can help lead and give voice to such a process, but the great work of coming together will ultimately only occur through the efforts of people in their communities, and only over time.
2. Questions about each candidate’s record and readiness should be forthright and clear-headed, not couched in euphemisms used by each other or surrogates. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Otherwise, a campaign about
3. If phony discussions about race persist and the posturing continues, we may very well miss tackling the real issues that require our attention, such as inadequate public schools, global warming, immigration, and, yes, race and the growing diversity of
This is an important juncture in the campaign, and for the country. Both sides keep hurling aspersions at the other, even as they try to put a lid on this escalating battle. Now is the time for both to exercise genuine leadership and foresight by coming together and setting out clear terms for how to move forward in the name of our common redemption. -
Candidates: Make the Ask
As the presidential primaries roll on, there is an opening that the candidates must now seize. The candidates have people's attention and have heightened our sense of possibility for changing the tone and direction of politics and public life. But there's a critical step they must take: to ask individuals Americans to step forward and be part of the change in
We all remember after 9/11 when President Bush had the chance to ask people to engage in new ways, he told Americans to go shopping. Perhaps that plea helped push the economy ahead. But what it didn't do was to galvanize Americans to work together in communities or to consider new policy options such as a bold energy program that might have asked changes of each American. The window of possibility opened, only to slam shut.
Now, the presidential candidates have discovered that "hope" is the coin of realm and that "change" is required. Campaigns have a way of dressing up ideas, proposals, and new directions in language and packaging that can appear to be citizen-centered and community-driven, but in reality remain very much about
The moment before us is not simply about engendering a momentary sense of "hope" in people, but about people playing a real role in moving the country, their communities, and individual lives forward. This moment is too important to allow it to be squandered, to see hope used as just another tactic. So while voting is essential, we must do more if we want to create the change we seek. We must build community capacity, support a new breed of leaders, work to engage one another as citizens and not consumers, and create civic mind-share, otherwise this moment may be lost.
As the excitement of the primary calendar builds, as the field of candidates begins to narrow, as momentum around the notion of hope soars, an opening emerges in politics and public life for the candidates to ask every American: will you join with one another to improve our society and people's lives?
I wish for the candidates to make this ask, just as clearly and passionately as they talk about
-
Iowa: A Call for Change
No matter who wins the nominations, the message out of the Iowa Caucuses is clear, strong and unmistakable. It is a call to bring about change and hope in America .
The call for change and to make hope real have long been cornerstones of our work at The Harwood Institute. That is why a few months ago I wrote, Make Hope Real.The essay, helps each of us think about how we can do the work that must be done within our communities to create the kind of change we want.
It is why we established an alliance with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help public broadcasters nationwide innovate new ways to strengthen the civic health of communities through their work.
It is why we have been developing new boundary spanning organizations to bring people together across dividing lines, incubate new ideas, and hold up a mirror so we can see our shared realities and take common action.
It is why we have been working in communities across the country - from
The desire to help communities create change is why we created the Harwood Public Innovators Lab. The Lab helps public innovators come together and develop the sensibilities and practices they need to bring about real change and hope.
It is why we created the Annual Public Innovators Summit, so key leaders from across the nation can come together and reflect on the essence of their work, rejuvenate themselves and join forces in new ways to reshape public life.
Change and hope. These words beg us to bring our full selves to the tasks before us, with a sense of true purpose and intention. They call on us to create a public life that works for all people and which taps our better instincts.
The moment is now to make hope real in our communities, through our organizations, in our daily work and lives.
To accelerate efforts to create change and make hope real in your community order Make Hope Real.