Better for Us--Why is This Important?

Better for Us:  Why is this important?—Because it takes a village to make one

  
Years ago, I met Richard Harwood of the Harwood Institute.  Richard is a nationally recognized expert on the what is going on in the hearts of Americans.  In one of his books, Hope Unraveled (and cited in his 2007 book, Make Hope Real), he cites four reasons for the divisions we have in our nation, states, communities, and neighborhoods.  Richard calls them “broken covenants”:

·       Lost Faith in the American Dream

·       Free-for-all on basic values

·       Materialism and consumerism run amuck

·       Breakdown in community  www.theharwoodinstitute.org/sharehope

These broken covenants are tearing at the fabric of our public lives. As a result, many of us don’t even know our neighbors, have a very thin safety net of people we can rely on, and are isolated behind our electronic devices and security-locked doors. 

In my own neighborhood in central Tucson 30% of the residents are rentals and I almost daily see moving vans move on the street.  At a recent annual meeting of a nearby neighborhood, the only neighbors attending were the association officers, minus one.  Another neighborhood leader in Tucson admitted to me that “the only thing that gets people to our meetings is a crisis and it has to be a pretty scary one at that.”  So focusing on crime, speeding, zoning, and potholes are the topics of the day at local cafés, generating toxic attitudes that spill into public meetings.

Not too long ago I was hired to moderate a contentious gathering of engineers, consultants, neighborhoods and elected officials.  The first words spoken by a public member was an obscenity—and young children were present.  This escalated into shouting and arm waving members approaching the “front of the room” (mostly men) cowering against the wall.  Fortunately, the location was at a university building where a security officer took me aside telling me that he detected liquor and the lingering odor of marijuana.  So I called for city police backup, wrote up public conversation ground rules (which I had requested to be posted but weren’t), and offered the belligerent members a separate conversation room where I would be moderating.  The offenders left, the police stayed, and the conversation took place.

But I cried about this experience for three days and wouldn’t talk with the other team members for a week.  They had let me down and even I didn’t feel safe in a public space.  Fortunately, my career with another professional team continued for a few years.  But that experience was a turning point in the direction of my work.

Recognizing that what Richard Harwood said about broken covenants was true, but trying, as he has in his work, to find a better way, I discovered hope:  there was a global movement improving happiness and well-being of  nations, states and communities.  www.actionforhappiness.org

My next post will tell you more about this better for us direction—toward hope, happiness and well-being.

 

Focused Fact:

 

 

 

In a New York Times Editorial 11/5/15, the author states that the national voter turnout of 36.3 % was the lowest in seventy-two  years.  The key factors were voter apathy, anger and frustration at mainly negative campaigns. 

Conclusion: negativity is bad for democracy.