Go Where We Ought to be

The day after the election, we hosted the inaugural meeting of our technology for all organization. This endeavor is funded by a KenCrest New Business Initiative grant. It involves organizing a collaborative group to help amplify the voices of those in need, coordinate the efforts to access technology, and empower policy creation. It was a good day to be looking to the future.

The meeting was held at the Constitution Center. At the end of the day, we all had free passes to the exhibition which begins with some basics about the constitution. Since the election, there are many who believe that we are moving towards an illiberal version of America. I had to look up the word illiberal, I had never heard it before. Essentially it describes a dictatorship. I don’t think an illiberal America turns out to vote in the numbers we saw at the polls on November 5th.

The problem with elections is that someone wins, and someone loses. This time around the people whose candidate did not win are not just unhappy, they are anxious. They are anxious that the intended balance of power within the government, and that the ability for people to debate and hear each other has been eroded. Why is that?

This time, more so than any election I recall, the nation was running on fear. The fear messages were woven in with messages of prejudice and blame. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans that I know talk that way.

Almost always, candidates campaign for change. I think this time, it is important to think about and understand what changes we really want. What do we want more of, less of, and the same? I write this in the spirit of Rosalyn Carter who wrote, A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go but ought to be.

The operative word here is “go”. We, the people, must want to go and then actually move toward something. The Constitution calls that place we ought to go “a more perfect union”.

I think we want more of something. We ought to want more care and concern for the earth. We need our planet; our lives depend on it. We ought to want more care of our neighbors. We see intolerance increasing even though we are a country that was created by immigrants and founded for religious and economic freedom. We ought to want more debate. We need more accurate information to make personal decisions, and more access to resources to assure our good health.

We ought to want less of someone telling us our personal values. We ought to want less fear and blame. We ought to want less overpromises of results based on the efforts of the few. Clearly, we are not afraid of hard work. We ought to have less overtime in the US. It ought to be easier to make enough money without so many hours of work.

We ought to want our same freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom from persecution for difference. We ought to be able, if we so chose, to safely worship in our own ways.

The election is over, but our voices cannot be quiet. We need conversations now about what we want, and what ought to be. American citizens are a complex group; voices cannot be silent.

This country has not been built by one person, or one small group of people. Let’s expect greatness in each of us as leaders of our own lives, leaders in our work organizations, and leaders of great neighborhoods.

At KenCrest we stand for social justice, a place where everyone belongs. We have the expectations that we can all dream and have what those original authors of the Constitution imagined: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.