Why We're Here: Civic Faith

On this Special Election 2020 Series, Rich Harwood discusses Civic Faith, why we’re here, and what drives how we see and relate to one another. This is Part 4 of 4, coming to you each Tuesday at 4PM ET.

0:01

Hi, I'm Rich Harwood. Welcome to another edition of our Special Election 2020 Series: How We Move Forward from Here. It's so good to have you with me today, so much to talk about, lots happening in the news, lots happening in our lives. And, you know, this has been a four part series. Today is Part Four, the last of our four part series called c Civic Faith: Why we're here. You can find all four episodes on our Facebook page, you can find it, you can find them on our website, and you can find them on our YouTube channel as well. Again, I'm Rich Harwood, so good to have you with me. Thanks for joining me today.

0:51

You know, I want to start again, as I have in the previous three segments, by reminding us about what we're facing in the country today. And it seems to me that we are facing confronting four simultaneous crises unprecedented really, when you think about it in our nation's history. I'll just go through these quickly. You know, we're facing a global pandemic COVID-19, which is wreaking havoc on our nation. All the numbers keep going up, the number of people infected, the number of deaths, the number of people infected each and every day, the number of people in our ICU units. And as you know, there's a vaccine there are vaccines right around the corner. But as Dr. Fauci and others have warned us, the worst is on its way in terms of post Thanksgiving, and then post Christmas holidays. And this pandemic has just proportionally while it's hit so many Americans, it’s disproportionately hit brown and Black people. Disproportionately hit people with pre existing conditions, disproportionately hit people without adequate health care insurance, disproportionately hit rural folks, disproportionately hit indigenous folks. It has laid bare the inequities and disparities that have existed for a long time in our country, but are really clear to us all now.

This global pandemic has given rise to a second crisis, this economic upheaval that we face, where so many Americans are unemployed. Now, so many more of us fear unemployment, there are those of us who may feel secure in our employment now, but fear that we may have to lay people off. And look, we all know that there are so many people who are running out of unemployment benefits, who are afraid of being evicted from their homes, or apartments. Or who are facing food shortages in their daily lives. There is a third crisis of systemic racism and social injustice, which crystallized, I think, for so many Americans at the death of George Floyd, the murder, really, of George Floyd. And, you know, as I say, time and again, and as so many people have observed, this crisis of systemic racism and social injustice, while it has crystallized in our public mind now, it has existed with us since before the founding of our nation, it is part of the original sins of our nation. And then there is a political crisis, a fourth crisis, this political crisis that we're facing, which we're facing now, because we have a president who apparently doesn't want to leave the White House, and a president-elect who is waiting to be recognized as the next president of the United States, we have the last four years that we have experienced.

4:04

But beyond these two things, what we all know is that this political crisis has been with us for decades, I've been writing about it and speaking about it for over three and a half decades. A political crisis where we do not trust our political leaders where we have lost faith in so many of our institutions, where we have lost faith in our religious institutions, where we have lost faith in groups like the Boy Scouts, where we have lost faith in our local organizations that seem more interested in their own survival than the civic health of our communities. And unfortunately, and sadly, where so many of us have lost faith in one another, that we can come together and actually get things done.

4:51

These four crises, as I've mentioned, have exacerbated the existing disparities in equities and challenges that we are already facing before these crises really hit in the ways that they have hit. And here's the thing, in just the last few days, just like almost every week now, when I get on the phone with folks from across the country, they tell me things about how they're feeling. And, and I just want to read you three quotes that I jotted down as I was talking to people. Just this week, in the last couple of days, one person said to me, I don't see how the 80 million people or so who voted for President-Elect Biden will ever be able to come together with the 73 million people who voted for President Trump. Another person said, How can our country recover from these crises, our foundation is breaking apart. And a third person said to me, things are so raw right now. I just want to quit trying to figure out what to do.

6:03

I suspect that so many of you are joining me today and you're coming into this space tired. That so many of you are joining, frustrated, that so many of you are coming into this space, feeling angry, maybe enraged. That so many of you that you might be coming into this space, feeling deflated or defeated or denigrated or diminished, that so many of you feel that so many of us feel that things are sorely on the wrong path, not only in our nation, and in our communities, but perhaps in our personal lives as well.

6:43

You know, I undertook this special series, this Special Election 2020 series because I believe that to make real and meaningful progress in our country, then we must get on a new path, we must create a new path. A path that is more just, a path that is more fair, a path that is more equitable, a path that is more inclusive, a path that puts us on a more hopeful trajectory as a society. And to do this, to get on this new path, this new, fair, equitable, just, inclusive, hopeful path, then I think our fundamental task before us is to find ways to come together to reimagine and recreate our lives, and our communities and thus, our nation itself. That that is our fundamental task. Going back to normal is not what we need to do. As you know, back to normal was normal was not all that good for so many of our fellow Americans, and maybe even for you and those of you who are listening today. No, going back to normal is not the path we want to get on. The path we need to take is a more hopeful, just, inclusive, fair, equitable path. And to do that, to do that, we must come together and reimagine and recreate our lives, our communities in this nation itself.

8:19

Now in this election series, about how we move forward from here, in part one, I talked about the fact that we are at an impasse and that in order to break that impasse, we must create action, the type of path I'm talking about in our local communities. In part two, I said that we, that you and I, each of us, that you need to shift your focus to actually help create this new path. In part three, I talked about four mantras for taking action, about how you can imagine this voice, this coach, this mentor in your own mind, that reminds you to actually make this shift a reality, to get in motion and make the shift a reality.

9:08

And today, in part four, I want to talk about what I call Civic Faith. That is what underpins what drives, how we see and relate to one another. What is our north star in the actions that we need to take? Now, all of the Institute's work is rooted in this philosophy, what we call civic faith. Civic faith is a philosophy. And you know, I haven't always articulated as such and it's something I've been working on for 20 years, 25 years. But just back in 2017, I was at a dinner with some current staff folks, some former staff folks from studio associates from our studio on community here at the Institute. And I kept talking about what undergirds our work, what really drives it, why our focus is what it is, what motivates us, what motivates me for that matter, to do what we do, and to do it in the ways in which we do it. And as I articulated this, and articulated how this, this notion animates our work, there were two people there who said to me, you know, Rich, you keep talking about civic faith, but it's, it's not written down anywhere in the Institute's work. It's not on our website, we don't, we don't really talk about it, you talk about it every once in a while, but if it's so important to the work that the Institute has been doing for the last 20 or 30 years, if it animates everything that we do, if it's our North Star for everything that we seek to achieve, then don't we owe it to people to articulate it, and to really put it down and so and so we have. And so today, what I want to talk about is this notion of civic faith, our philosophy. And as you know, our Turning Outward practice, is what enables people in communities and across this country, and now in 40 other countries to make civic faith a reality. And our notion of what we call How Change Happens, which is, the topic of a new book I have coming out called Unleashed in February is how actually change unfolds, how we kickstart a chain reaction in communities to that we can address fault lines in community.

11:48

But today, I want to go all the way back to the beginning, why we're calling this Why are we here, and talk about this philosophy of civic faith. Because I think, if we're going to do this work, if you and I and others in our communities, are going to reimagine and recreate our lives, our communities, and thus the nation itself, then I think we owe it to ourselves to talk about what is our North Star in doing that. We owe it to ourselves to make sure we have a touchstone about what it is that really guides our actions. And so this philosophy of civic faith holds in short, that placing people, that placing community, that placing a culture of shared responsibility at the center of our shared lives, will help us create this more hopeful, inclusive society that I've been talking about, that I've been talking about. And as I said, this is the North Star for all of our work.

12:56

There are five parts to this definition, this philosophy of civic faith, and I just want to run through these with you today so that you can have a sense of them and as I do, I urge you to think about what does this mean for you? What does it say to you? Does this philosophy speak to you? What does it cause you to want to do not simply to think about but to want to do and what is it? What does it suggest about how you need to take action, when you actually do step forward to take action? And so you ready? You still with me? I hope you're still with me here.

13:41

Here's the first part, at the heart of civic faith, are people, are people. It seems to me that in all the work that you and I do in communities that need to happen in our communities, that need to happen in order for us to reimagine and recreate our lives, our communities and the nation itself. Then we need to put people at the center of everything that we do. We need to put their lives at the center of what we do. We need to put what matters to people at the center of what we need to do. We need to put people's individual and their shared aspirations at the center of what we do. It's why being turned outward is so important, right? And when we put people at the center of what we do, it seems to me that that we need to make a commitment, a real commitment to afford each and every individual in our society dignity. As a non negotiable, as a birthright. It's not something you earn, it's not something you send away for in the mail. It's not something that someone else just simply gives to you because they like you. It's not something that we give to one another because someone else has the same color of skin as we do or the same faith as we do or they live in the same economic status as we do, or they drive the same kind of car as we do. No, we afford dignity to each and every person in our society, regardless of all those things. Because we value each and every individual.

15:21

And when we put people at the center of what we do, as part of this notion of civic faith, we put at the center of our work, that people have a desire to express their sense of agency, and to do it with others, right to create a society together to create communities together to create their shared lives together. And so if we have a North Star, and if it's called something that I call civic faith, this philosophy of civic faith, then at the center of civic faith, are people, are people. The challenge is that, as I've alluded to already, too often, we leave people out of the equation, or we leave some people out of the equation, or we overlook people or we talk about the importance of people, but we really don't value them. Or that we push people aside, who disagree with us, or we deny their dignity. Now, think about this, in terms of the four crises that we face today. Think about do we really put people at the center of what we're doing in terms of this pandemic? Do we really afford each person equal access to health care? To ensure that everyone no matter their pre existing conditions, is afforded dignity? Do we ensure that when we're confronting systemic racism and social injustice, that we're putting people at the center of everything that we're doing? When we think about the economic upheaval in our country and the people who are unemployed, the people who fear unemployment, the people who are about to be evicted from their homes, or apartments, the people who are suffering from food shortage shortages? Have we really put people at the center of everything that we're doing? I know, it's clear as day, that our politicians in Washington haven't. They can't even come to a damn agreement about how to ensure that people don't fall through the cracks in our society. It's gone on too long, far too long. But what about the rest of us, we can cast aspersions on them. We can point fingers of blame at them. But how about how we show up what we do each and every day? Have we put people at the center of everything that we're doing. So that's part one.

17:55

Part Two of civic faith is that it's rooted in people's innate capabilities to shape their own lives and those lives, the lives of those in their communities. I said this to some folks right outside Chicago last week, when we were doing an orientation session for a new public innovators lab that we're running virtually. When I said this, I said, you know, we all have innate capabilities. We have innate capabilities, regardless of the color of our skin, regardless of how much money we have, regardless of what side of town we live on. Regardless of how much education we have, regardless of what our zip code is, regardless of the kind of car we drive, regardless of the kind of house we live in. Each and every one of us. Each and every one of us has something to offer each and every one of us has gifts and talents and resources. And it doesn't matter how large our contribution is or how big it is. Each of those contributions we need to value because they reflect that we value people, they reflect that we recognize the inherent the intrinsic value of each and every person. They reflect that we see each other and each other's innate capabilities to step forward and contribute something positive to society and to one another.

19:19

Our task today, when we face these four crises, is to marshal our shared resources, our collective resources, our collective innate capabilities. Because, I'm telling you, there is no single institution, no single leader, no one organization, no one group of citizens who can help us get out of this mess that we're in. We need all of us to ensure that no one is shut in and lonely that no one doesn't have access to remote learning because their kids don't have access to internet or a tablet, or a laptop. That none of us go hungry. We need all of us. And here's the other thing. When we think about these four crises, we have demonstrated through these four crises, so many of our innate capabilities by the ways in which we have come together to work together, large organizations and small ones and individual citizens and new networks of groups of people.

20:23

But here's the thing, will we recognize people's innate capabilities when these crises pass, and when we create some new normal? Because we Americans, you know, I know I don't need to tell you this, but we Americans are so good at responding to man-made and natural disasters and crises. I think the task for us moving forward in order to reimagine and recreate our lives, our communities, and this nation itself is that we need to be able to tap into our innate capabilities that we're tapping into now, we need to be able to do it a year from now, two years from now, five years from now, that's what will enable us to get on a new path, a different path, a better path, a more just path a more equitable path, a more inclusive path. And so the first part of this is civic faith puts people at the center. And then civic faith is rooted in the belief in people's innate capabilities.

21:29

The third part of civic Faith is the centrality of hope in our lives. The centrality of hope in our lives. I've come to believe after doing this work for 30 or 35 years now, that the most important thing in our individual and collective lives is that each of us, me, the person down the street, you, that each of us wants a sense of possibility and hope in our lives. That each of us, that you that the kids we work with in these local communities, that the folks in Jackson, Mississippi, we're working with now, the folks in Clark County, Kentucky, we're working with the folks in Las Vegas, I'm going to speak to them tomorrow night, that no matter where you are, no matter where you're listening from, that each of us want to believe that tomorrow can be better than today.

22:27

And here's the thing, hope is not just a noun, hope is a verb, we get to create it. And not only do we get to create it, we get to make a choice each and every day. A fundamental choice, a choice between whether or not we will create false hope, rooted in expectations we articulate but no, we can hit that say anyway, rooted in notions that we're going to transform things overnight, even though we know it's not possible. False hope in the sense that, that we believe we're gonna raise all this money to solve all these problems but we know that money may not be the solution to all these problems, or that we can't raise all the money we're saying when promising to people that we're saying we're going to raise. We have a fundamental choice between whether or not we're going to pursue and peddle more false hope, or whether or not we will engender a sense of authentic hope in people's lives. A sense that we're in it together, a sense that we can raise tough issues and put them on the table for us to discuss, a sense of authentic hope that comes from not that maybe we've solved the problems, but that we're beginning to take a stab at those problems, a sense of authentic hope that comes from seeing people come together and taking action together to produce a different result that maybe we never thought was possible before. Or maybe we thought was possible for but we were waiting for people, waiting for us, waiting for you to step forward to do it.

24:10

False hope pushes people away. It pushes people to hunker down. It pushes people to well, to become more cynical. The last thing we need in our society is more cynicism. That sense of being deflated, the sense that tomorrow can't be better than today. And so the civic faith that I believe we need, the civic faith that I believe needs to be our North star is rooted in the notion that we must make the active choice, that you must make the active choice to engender authentic hope through the actions and the words that you use each and every day. We must turn away from false hope and actively turn outward towards authentic hope. So the first part is that people are at the center of civic faith, that our innate capabilities matter, that hope is central to civic faith.

25:22

And the fourth part is that civic faith is rooted in the conviction, that community must be a common enterprise. That we cannot create the kind of shared lives we want on our own alone. That too many of us feel like we have to go it alone on our own in our communities, we see that each and every day. We know that. We talk a lot about community. We love to talk about community. But the question I have for each of us, the question I have for you today is community for all of us or is community just for some of us? Do we believe that we sink or swim together? Or that we'll just go it on our own as long as we can succeed, and we don't have to worry about others.

26:16

I believe that community needs to be a common enterprise, that the civic faith we need to engender in our country comes from the conviction and the action, that civic faith is a common enterprise that we are working in common cause with a sense of common purpose, working in a common direction and marshalling our common resources to create a community that puts us on a better path, a more just path, a more equitable and fair path, a more inclusive and hopeful path. And to make that happen, we need a civic faith in which community is actually a common enterprise.

26:59

And lastly, at the core of this civic faith that I'm talking about, this philosophy of civic faith, sits a covenant, a civic covenant. Now I know we like to talk about programs and initiatives and strategies, and I'm all for those. And look, that's the form our work takes, right. That's how we get stuff done. But it seems to me that if we're talking about our North Star, about how we relate to one another, and how we see one another, and this idea that we need to engender civic faith in ourselves and one another, as a North Star, then this notion of covenant, this notion of civic covenant becomes increasingly important, it actually is vital. It is rooted in this notion that we are in relationship with one another, that the way a shared society works is that we recognize our interdependence that, as I've mentioned a few different ways, we can't go it alone on our own, we need to be in relationship to one another.

28:11

And that as important as our strategies, as important as our programs are, and our initiatives are, that we must recognize that we are in relationship to one another. And that we must pay attention to these relationships, that we must make them vibrant and robust and real in our lives. Another way of saying this is that we must see and hear one another. Right, we must see and hear one another and recognize that we are here together. And that we need some kind of Covenant, some kind of agreement, not a contract, which stipulates legally, what we owe each other. But a covenant, a civic covenant, about how we want to engage with one another, and what kind of society we want to create together. So that all of us can succeed, all of us have a shot at fulfilling America's Promise, which we know doesn't happen today. And that all of us have a shot at fulfilling our God-given potential.

29:17

So this is the notion of civic faith that I'm talking about, that people are at the center of what we do, that we believe in people's innate capabilities, hat hope is central to how we move forward in the choice of hope that we make, that community is a common enterprise, and that we focus on creating together, co-creating a civic covenant between and among us about the ways in which we will relate to one another and work together to create the kind of society that we aspire to have.

29:52

Our most fundamental choice today our most our most fundamental choices, Today is to step forward and to work together to reimagine and recreate our lives, our communities, and thus the nation itself. So that we can put ourselves not back to normal, but that we can get on a path that is more just more fair, more equitable, more inclusive and more hopeful, not just for some of us, but for all of us. I know there are doubters out there, I know that there are people who listen to me and say, You must be out of your mind. I know there are people who are cynics. I know there are people who just want to keep us divided. But here's the thing, this philosophy, it came out of out of experience, and I see it happening each and every day in communities, all across our country.

We can do it. You can do it. We can't do it alone. We need each other, we got to do it together. But I see it happening. And we need to do it in our local communities. Because it's there that I see these 80 million people who voted for President Elect Biden, and the 70 plus million who voted for President Trump, I see them coming together in local communities now. And I've seen them coming together for months before and years before. Notwithstanding their partisan differences, they are working in local communities, to build better schools and education systems, to bridge divides to ensure that kids don't feel abandoned, to ensure that we're fighting the opioid and meth crisis, to address systemic racism and social injustice. It is happening, you know this, I know this, in our local communities. W e can do this. I'm seeing in our local communities that we are building a new foundation for our nation, by not only addressing the fault lines that I just mentioned, but that we're building a stronger civic culture that hopefully will begin to bubble up and spread across our nation, and serve as a new foundation for us to build a better society that represents the best in us and the best of us, not the worst of us in the worst in us.

32:15

And I'm seeing in local communities, people coming together to reinvigorate our spirit of possibility and hope. I see it with the folks working in Jackson, Mississippi. I see it with the folks working in Mobile, Alabama. I see it with the folks working in Sacramento County. I see it with the folks working all across our nation and communities too far, too many communities to mention here. We can do this. We can do this. But we have to have a North Star. And for me, and hopefully for you, that North Star is a notion a philosophy of civic faith that puts people first that values are innate capabilities that has hope at its core, and hope, authentic hope, not false hope that makes community a common enterprise. And that creates together a civic covenant about the kind of society and the kind of communities and kind of lives we aspire to create together.

33:24

So let me just close with my hope for you today. My hope for you today is that you will embrace this philosophy of civic faith as a touchstone about how we show up. about how we put ourselves on this new path that I'm talking about, and how we begin to reimagine and recreate our lives, our communities, and our nation itself.

33:49

And so thank you for joining me today. Thanks for being part of this special series. If you want more information on the Harwood Institute, go to the Harwoodinstitute.org, our website. If this message resonated with you today, please share it with others because that's how we're going to put ourselves on a new trajectory in this country. Let's share this message. Let's get it out to other folks. Build allies using it. If you've read my newest book, Stepping Forward, I thank you. If you haven't, get a copy@amazon.com or our website, and if you have get a copy for someone else during this holiday season. And until the next Harwood Half Hour, I hope you stay healthy. I hope you stay in good spirits. Be well, thanks so much for joining me.