During his first State of the Union address, how can President Biden speak to the real concerns of Americans and call us forward to discover anew what we hold in common? Here’s how.

"The Drum Major Instinct" is one of my favorite Martin Luther King, Jr. sermons. It asks, “What does it mean to step forward to lead and serve?” This is especially important for any of us with a burning desire to create a more just, fair, equitable, inclusive and hopeful society. So, what is the nature of your own path?

On September 11, 2001, I was working in my home-study on a new book when I got a phone call from an old college friend imploring me to turn on the TV. There, I saw a plane ram into one of the World Trade Towers, where my college roommate Frank worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. In his anguish, he left a phone message for his wife. We lost him. I lost him.

As I watch the crumbling of Afghanistan, as I listen to Americans in a new mood of America study I am conducting, as I listen to the hyped and dangerous political debates over critical race theory, among so many other things in our world today, I wonder: Where is our humility?

How can we unleash the full and unbounded potential of people in communities to address the critical fault lines that beset us and transform our civic culture to support such action? This is the question I have been wrestling with.

There are times in your life when you become so angry, frustrated, scared, enraged, or feel threatened that you just want to walk away and give up. Now may be one of those times for you. I am hearing this from so many people. Perhaps I can hear you whispering such things as well.

There are times in your life when you become so angry, frustrated, scared, enraged, or feel threatened that you just want to walk away and give up. Now may be one of those times for you. I am hearing this from so many people. Perhaps I can hear you whispering such things as well.

I was on the phone with a rabbi earlier this week, and we came up with the idea to pull together a small group of people to reflect on what we’ve learned about society and ourselves during this past year. God knows, it’s been a hard, tumultuous year.

Many people have asked me lately about personal resilience during this messy, strange, disturbing time that we’re living through. You are trying your hardest to keep your head above water, yet you often feel unhappy, unfulfilled, unrelentingly under pressure. Even when things are going well. You may be asking yourself: is personal resilience enough to get through these times?

What do we face today? What are we willing to look at, see, engage with? What is asked of each of us, and all of us, especially as the scourge of COVID continues to ravage our nation, our economy sputters and indiscriminately spits people out, and systemic racism calls out to us to bravely step up and take action?

In response to the four crises we face—COVID-19, economic turmoil, systemic racism, and political breakdown—foundations, corporations, and other groups are all running into the void offering more funding and more resources to various causes and groups. All good. And yet these alone will not enable us to seize this moment.