Blog
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Four Keys for Obama and Us
On Wednesday
night, President Obama will give his first
State of the Union Address. I’m less
concerned about his specific speech than I am
about the overall trajectory of the nation –
and whether he speaks to it. At issue is how we
get the nation on the right trajectory. Here
are my four keys.
You’ll remember that after the 2008 presidential election, people thought there would be a fundamental shift in the nation’s politics and people’s engagement. I didn’t buy that notion then, or in 2004 when President Bush assumed he had a clear mandate after defeating Senator John Kerry. Make no mistake: people yearn for a new kind of politics, but there’s little consensus in the country about what to do.
At issue is how to navigate these troubled waters and make hope real.
Here are four keys for President Obama, and others, who seek to move the nation forward and restore a sense of possibility in politics and public life.1. Your authority (and support) is rooted in your knowledge of people’s lives. That is to say, it is not derived from playing power politics, adhering to ideology or voicing populist rhetoric; none these options will bring people together to produce and support positive change. And yet, that’s the game right now. Instead, people want to know that you understand their lives, the issues and concerns they’re wrestling with, and the pace of change they can support and endure. To produce hope and change requires making people and communities the key point of orientation.
2. Small victories count big time. The nation – like many communities – is at an impasse. Everyone is saying, “Enough is enough!” but there is not widespread and deep agreement on what should be done on major concerns. In times like these, what’s most important is to produce meaningful actions that demonstrate our ability to come together and produce change, and which help to restore our sense of confidence and faith in one another. The size of the accomplishment is less important than its trajectory. What’s needed in America, more than anything, is a new trajectory.
3. Fight for hope. Notions of “hope” stood at the core of the 2008 election, but where are they now? Hope has been traded in for backroom deals, Washington-centric politics, and more acrimony and divisiveness. Now, in response, many people want the president to come out swinging on health care and other issues, but that’s the wrong fight. The right fight for the president, and other like-minded people from both parties, is to maintain a clear narrative about the kind of politics they seek to create – and to live it every day. It is to set the tone and pace for how issues will be discussed and addressed. This politics fundamentally must be more than about Washington, D.C.
4. Engage everyday people in the work of the country. As I travel the country, many of the things people want to get done have little to do with Washington, D.C. politics. For instance, in Detroit and Lansing, MI, people have told me that they want to create safe, caring and connected communities, and they say there is the need for more people to get involved on-the-ground. The same is true on a host of concerns about education and other issues. The president and other leaders should immediately turn outward to people and communities – but not for their support, votes, or money. Instead, they should help to launch a national effort for people to re-engage and reconnect in their communities on issues they care about (I’ll say more about this in future blogs).
So much of what is happening in the nation’s politics and public life is negative and counter-productive. It’s time to put the nation on a different trajectory which will require actively tapping into the nation’s potential and spirit. Only then can we make hope real. More Washington-centric politics will not get any of us where we want to go. -
Haiti's Cry of Grace
Like you,
I’ve been watching the news from Haiti and
wondering how that small nation will lift
itself up from despair. So much has been
destroyed, ruined, and wrecked. So many lives
have been lost, and those which remain are
tattered. But all is not lost in that nation.
Listen closely and you can hear people’s cry
of grace.
I watched on the news last night as a husband vigilantly kept watch over the site where a bank once stood and his wife once worked. Now a pile of rubble, people told him that his wife would never be found. He should go home – wherever that might be now. But, he kept returning and he kept digging with whatever make-shift tools he could find, and, ultimately, he could hear the faint voice of his wife coming from below. He then waved down a visiting Los Angeles rescue crew to help him, and they dug some more, eventually lifting her out from the debris. The news report’s final scene was of the woman driving away with her husband in their car.
What was most striking to me about this scene was when the LA rescue crew placed the woman on a stretcher as she was pulled out from the rubble. There, spontaneously, she broke into song, her melodic voice celebrating life. To me, her spirit and smile were signs of grace amid despair.
I once gave a speech entitled, “Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly.” This line is from the second verse of the song, “Free at Last.” The words make up one of the most beautiful lines I have ever read. The slaves began singing the song long before the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. It was an act of faith when they sang it. It was a belief in the future – that it could be dramatically different from their present day. It reflected their hope about what might become. It was an expectation about what might be brought forward. It was about how tomorrow could be different from today.
I am so very thankful that so many countries are racing to get so much aid to the people of Haiti. The food and medical supplies and equipment are desperately needed. And more will be needed, especially in the months to come.
But amid all the donations and logistics I am drawn to the grace of Haiti’s people. In another news story I saw from Haiti, a group of people had gathered together after nightfall to sing songs. There, in a circle, their voices were clear and strong. They had reportedly lost their homes, but not themselves, their spirit, their hope.
It would be easy to focus only on the pain and hunger and despair in Haiti. But I believe we should also hear the cry of grace from Haiti, and recognize people’s humanity. This is their gift to themselves – and to us. It is the song of grace. -
My Michigan Wish
When you
think about Detroit and the state of Michigan
what do you see and hear? What emotions come
over you? What kind of response do you want to
give? All last week I was in Lansing, MI for
our Public Innovators Lab and I came away more
hopeful than one might expect about the
situation there. Now, I have one simple wish
for Michigan and other communities.
Times are tough in Michigan, as they are in many places across the country. Severe budget shortfalls plague both state and local governments. Unemployment and under-employment riddle people’s lives. Progress and hope can feel out of reach. At times it seems that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. But look again and listen to what people have to say.
At the Lansing Lab we had more than fifty participants go out onto the streets to “Ask Lansing” about people’s aspirations and thoughts about the community. Sure, many people talked about the need for more jobs. But the thrust of what Lab participants heard was that people in the Greater Lansing area hold a palpable affection for their community. There is no desire among people to make a mass exodus; they want to stay. They told us that they want to create a safer, more caring and connected community, one where kids can grow up, and one where a key asset is recognized: the community’s vibrant diversity.
This is a far cry from what I often hear people outside Michigan project onto the state. Oftentimes people assume that those who live in Michigan can’t wait to leave, and that it must be depressing for those who are “trapped” there. But that’s not what we found in Greater Lansing; nor is it what we found back in June in our Detroit when more than 70 Lab attendees participated in “Ask Detroit.”
Let’s face it there are no easy answers for Lansing, Detroit, and other communities. Meanwhile, lots of good people in such communities are trying to do good things. So, rather than lay out more solutions today, I simply want to express my one wish.
All sorts of dollars are now flowing into Michigan to “help save” the state. Many of those dollars are sorely needed to address issues involving public schools, housing, economic development, and vulnerable children and families. But alone they will not be enough. So, as the dollars flow:
My wish is that we hold ourselves accountable for seeing communities as places where people actually live, and not simply as “sites” to implement programs and initiatives. When the latter occurs we end up missing people’s aspirations – what they seek, and what they’ll go to bat for. We fail to take the steps that galvanize people to play an active part in the creation of the community they want. Sadly, we get caught up in activity-happy approaches that produce little change.
We need good programs and initiatives in communities; much of my own work focuses on creating such actions. But in doing so we must fully recognize that good programs alone will not lead to the communities people want. Our challenge is fundamentally a human endeavor, one that must recognize and build upon the good things people already value, and which calls people to do their part of creating a different future. Communities with good programs – but without caring, connections and common purpose – are hardly communities. We must take a different path.
This is my Michigan wish. -
Back to Michigan - Updates from the Lab
This week we are returning to Michigan. In June we made a commitment to the people of Detroit, the people of Michigan to bring the Public Innovators Lab to that city. This week we're again bringing the Harwood Public Innovators Lab to Michigan - this time to Lansing.
Each day this week we'll be sharing Rich's Reports - video essays from Lansing- touching on the kind of challenges facing our communities, and the kinds of change we can create if we turn outward.