• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. civil discourse>

What comes after all the preaching to the choir about our need for unity?

David L. Nevins
https://twitter.com/davidlnevins?lang=en
May 11, 2020
What comes after all the preaching to the choir about our need for unity?

The Bridge Alliance's David Nevins asks: Were we as naive in 1985, when "We Are the World" came out, as we are today?

www.youtube.com

Nevins is a co-founder of the Bridge Alliance, a coalition of almost 100 organizations seeking to strengthen democracy. (The Bridge Alliance Education Fund is a funder of The Fulcrum.)


This first weekend of May was a deeply moving time for me.

It started with the #Weaving Community Zoom gathering of leadership partners working at a blistering pace to maximize our service to neighbors and actions in this most challenging time for all of us.

That same evening, I was moved to tears listening to the prayers of Bishop T.D. Jakes during "The Call to Unite," a 24-hour global livestream event. He prayed for all of us: the poor and the privileged, impoverished souls and those who have no compassion.

It is so easy to be swept away with the desire for "The Great Reset," as David Brooks had so eloquently expressed in his New York Times column that same day — a reset of our society based on compassionate listening, on core values that embrace ideas of caring, on a declaration of interdependence. I was among those swept away.

Yes, we all want to "Imagine" as John Lennon did almost 50 years ago. We want to imagine what can emerge from this moment is a new and better normal.

But it's fair to wonder if we are merely the dreamers that Lennon sang to, "hoping someday you'll join us." While reflecting, and feeling deeply connected to my fellow brothers and sisters, I can't help but wonder if there is a naivete surrounding our words of coming together.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

My powerful emotions of hope are quickly brought back to the reality of a divided country as I turn on the news and interact with friends who are in a totally different place — choosing not to imagine anything new or different. They benefit from and prefer the "old normal" over some unknown future.

Are we deluding ourselves to think that the coronavirus pandemic will become a time for us to truly come together as a nation? We've seen this before. We felt it in 1969 at Woodstock, the pop culture music event of the decade — if not for all time — when hundreds of thousands of us celebrated love, peace and happiness. And we felt it in 1985, when the country banded together and sang "We Are the World" to fight famine in Africa.

Those lyrics from 35 years ago resonate for our new moment of crisis: "There comes a time / when we heed a certain call, / when the world must come together as one. / There are people dying / oh, and it's time to lend a hand to life / — the greatest gift of all."

Were we as naive then as we are today? And if not how can today be different?

That first Saturday of this month was a beautiful day here in South Florida. Out on the golf course, I could see my doubts playing out before my eyes. My more progressive friends wearing their face masks were carefully practicing social distancing. But my more conservative friends acted as if life was totally normal, caring little about the risks of close contact, ignoring the guidelines and verbalizing their feeling that this is much ado about nothing.

And so while uplifted by the preaching of unity, of a day ahead in which we are together as one, reality tells me this is just half the story. It is not the story of mainstream America I see on TV, in the news or in my life. Nor is it what speaks to the complete truth of what is happening.

We speak of listening first, but are we really listening to what many Americans are saying and feeling? Are we just preaching to the choir to make ourselves feel better?

Last month the Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman lamented the country is "locked in a polarized, binary argument about lives versus livelihoods." We are debating the merits of healthy bodies and souls versus the health of our economy — when both are imperative. We are talking past each other or, even worse, we are not talking at all even as Covid-19 spreads among us.

If we can't come together during a pandemic what does that say about the society that we live in, about who we are as a people? If we can't "harmonize our need to protect ourselves from the coronavirus and our need to get back to work," as Friedman neatly summarized the challenge, how will we ever become the sharing, caring and pluralistic society so many friends and colleagues speak about as they labor to bridge our social and political differences?

I am deeply conflicted, as perhaps our country is.

On an emotional level I have been so moved to be part of all the recent Zoom calls, webinars and media events seeking to bring us together.

But I need — and our country needs — more. We need a realistic plan for turning these beautiful ideas into something more tangible. It needs to somehow get us beyond preaching to the choir about unity, something that simply does not resonate with 45 percent of our fellow citizens.

So often today we praise and give honor to the essential workers who have become heroes to us all. They are going about their lives without the luxury of thinking about a new normal or pontificating about a "great reset."

After walking down many roads these last 50 years, I am still asking "How many seas must the white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?"

I so want to believe that "All You Need is Love," but I cannot help but wonder if we are just "Blowin' in the Wind." And if we are, may we find the answers there.

From Your Site Articles
  • Katie Fahey: Searching for political humanity in Virginia - The Fulcrum ›
  • Americans much more unified because of the virus, poll finds - The ... ›
  • Deval Patrick poised to claim the new 'sentrist' mantle - The Fulcrum ›
  • If a bipartisan stimulus felt good, Washington, just try for more of that ›
  • What three African nations can teach us about elections - The Fulcrum ›
  • The Fulcrum has a new owner and a new mission - The Fulcrum ›
  • Podcast: The call the unite, with Tim Shriver - The Fulcrum ›
  • Podcast: The call the unite, with Tim Shriver - The Fulcrum ›
  • The American ethos requires overcoming the enemy inside us - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Myth of Americans coming together after a catastrophe - Los ... ›
  • National Institute For Civil Discourse - Engaging Differences ... ›
  • Opinion | What America Needs Next: A Biden National Unity Cabinet ... ›
civil discourse

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

The conservative mind at 70

Michael Lucchese

Fulcrum Rewind: How to get along at Thanksgiving

Debilyn Molineaux
David L. Nevins

How reforming felony murder laws can reduce juvenile justice harms

Margaret Mikulski

What if neither party can govern?

John Opdycke

The case for the 4th, from a part-time American

Flora Roy

How to critique a Schedule F revival

C.Anne Long
latest News

Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Lennon Wesley III
19h

Ranked choice voting won election day 2023

Ashley Houghton
Deb Otis
19h

Could George Santos torch the House by vacating the Speaker

Kevin R. Kosar
19h

Slovakia’s election deep fakes show how AI could be a danger to U.S. elections

David Levine
Louis Savoia
28 November

How to change the world: Sam Daley-Harris has a formula

Jay Evense
28 November

Podcast: America’s political orphans

Our Staff
28 November
Videos
Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Who is the new House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson?

Our Staff
Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Video: Jordan bully tactics backfire, provoke threats and harassment of fellow Republicans

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Video Rewind: Reflection on Indigenous Peoples' Day with Rev. F. Willis Johnson

Our Staff
Video: The power of young voices

Video: The power of young voices

Our Staff
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Lennon Wesley III
19h

Podcast: Dr. F. Willis Johnson in a rich conversation with Patrick McNeal

Our Staff
14 November

Podcast: Better choices, better elections

Our Staff
23 October

Podcast: Are state legislators really accountable to their voters?

Our Staff
06 October
Recommended
Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Podcast: Dr. F Willis Johnson in rich conversation with Steve Lawler

Podcasts
Ranked choice voting won election day 2023

Ranked choice voting won election day 2023

Big Picture
Could George Santos torch the House by vacating the Speaker

Could George Santos torch the House by vacating the Speaker

Big Picture
Slovakia’s election deep fakes show how AI could be a danger to U.S. elections

Slovakia’s election deep fakes show how AI could be a danger to U.S. elections

Contributors
How to change the world: Sam Daley-Harris has a formula

How to change the world: Sam Daley-Harris has a formula

Big Picture
Podcast: America’s political orphans

Podcast: America’s political orphans

Big Picture