Leadership and Civic Engagement
Don't know what you thought about last week’s election. You and I may disagree vehemently over its meaning and its ramifications.But I’d bet we’d agree on this: the result, a house divided, will make it even less likely that the United States Congress will get anything significant done to address the multiple crises we face. In both the insanely malicious campaign messages and in the language of the victors, partisanship and entrenchment seem once again on the rise (could they get any more intense?), boding ill for the collaborative approach that most Americans say they demand of their politicians.More and more, we can’t rely on government to lead. We have to stop expecting it. And yet to spend time bemoaning the sorry state of government is to waste energy for creating positive change. If we want to change things on a societal or global level, it’s up to us. Citizenship doesn’t mean voting. It means engagement, and engage we must.
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The people can lead such that the government will follow. History is replete with examples. We – you, me, anyone who cares – can only do what we can do. And we must do it.I refuse to give up hope. Some say it’s pointless to have hope in these times. I say it’s pointless to give up hope. It makes you miserable; it erodes the motivation to make the world a better place. And in some small way, each of us can make the world a better place.We don’t have to believe we can solve the problems of the world in order to get involved. As Vaclav Havel said, “Hope is not the certainty that something will turn out right, but the conviction that something is the right thing to do, regardless of how it turns out.”I believe we’re headed for a massive, unfathomable, planet-wide train wreck. It may show up in any number of forms: terrorist attacks, nuclear annihilation, global water shortages, the end of cheap fossil fuel energy, massive species extinction, climate change, world-wide food shortages. Any one of these could tear apart the very fabric of life as we know it.In its partisan paralysis, our government is doing very little to slow that train. I have no control over that. But anything I can do to slow it – even infinitesimally – will ease some suffering somewhere. It’s all I can do, and it’s my duty to do all I can do, out of the depths of my caring. That’s my definition of a life well-lived.
YOUR PATH FORWARD: Get involved, beyond your family and your workplace – just a little more than you’re already involved. Help ease suffering somewhere, just a little more than you’re currently doing.
