As MLK Day nears, I am reminded of work that we’re doing in Jackson, MS. Just recently, we released A New Civic Covenant: Jackson Ready To Step Forward, which sets out an inspiring agreement among a diverse group of local leaders to work together to make real and lasting progress for the community.

Around the table in Des Moines, as in other parts of our nation, people tell me they’re deeply fearful and afraid of the polarization and acrimony shaping our lives.

Our local communities will save our nation. For it is there we can turn outward toward one another, and provide a sense of dignity for all people, engender real hope, and include everyone in moving ahead.

While tired old debates rage over politics and policy in the wake of this new violence, our social norms rot away. So many people feel utterly bewildered and enraged about the direction of our country. Many of us also feel powerless. But we are not. It is a dire mistake to wait for our politicians to reset our social norms. They are waiting for us.

I’m delighted to launch my new book, Stepping Forward: A Positive Practical Path to Transform Our Communities and Our Lives. You can pre-order it here.

“Hey bud, here you go.” I looked over to my right when hearing these words, only to see a young man handing a meal to an older homeless gentleman sitting on the sidewalk. I know, there’s a long debate about whether such an action actually helps those in need. But in the world in which we live, we need all the acts of loving kindness we can muster.

Here’s the thing: If we want our work and efforts to be relevant, significant and impactful to the communities and people we seek to serve, then we must make hard choices. Otherwise, what we do may sound good, even do good, but still not be on-target to what we set out to achieve—nor to what we need to do.

Imagine this: Three 12 year-old black kids walk into an ice cream store in an all-white section of town, only to turn to their mentor and ask: “You sure it’s cool that we’re around all these white people?” These kids had never been to this part of town, and as the mentor explained to us in a recent interview, “They were so nervous when they got there.”

Dorothy Day, the great Catholic activist, is someone I have been thinking about lately as our country’s turmoil persists and people’s sense of hope wanes. She once wrote, “People say, what good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?”

Let’s face reality: the underlying change we need in our country today is not likely to come anytime soon from Washington, DC or many of our state capitals. Nor will it come from simply electing a new batch of elected officials that insist on pursuing a divisive and polarized politics. People in communities must step forward if we are to create the lives and communities—and the nation—we aspire to.

As I travel across the country on my new speaking tour, I am hearing a growing readiness and restlessness for a new, hopeful path forward where we can bring out the best in us, the best of us. This is good news—and I find myself reflecting deeply on it as Easter and Passover are upon us.

Last week, in Oak Park, IL, right outside Chicago, I kicked off my two-year, nationwide speaking tour. I’ll have more to say about the tour in the coming days. But, for now, I simply want to talk about why I decided to wear an American flag lapel pin at each tour event and why I have chosen to openly discuss it in my speeches. Many people are downright surprised by this.

I grew up in a small town in upstate New York where lots of people owned guns for hunting. Now, each summer, alone with my two dogs, I go for two weeks to a cabin in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains; this is even more rural and remote upstate New York, where even more people own guns and hunt. Hunting is an act of joy for many people. But when guns become a political weapon, nothing good comes of it.