Visit Harwood's Redeeming Hope blog and let your voice be heard
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
(The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation)This week, The Harwood Institute is asking
everyone interested in forging an alternate
path for our politics and public life to join
Rich Harwood for a national conversation on
"The State of Our Union."
Rich is writing a series of articles this
week for his blog, Redeeming
Hope, that are designed to address some of
the fundamental questions we face as a society
of people who have retreated from the public
square. The conversation leads up to the
president's annual State of the Union Address,
which is scheduled for next Tuesday, Jan. 31.
Rich's writings are based on his 20 years of
travel across the country, listening to the
authentic voices of ordinary Americans. What he
has found is that people have retreated from
politics and public life because leaders no
longer reflect the reality of our daily lives
in their words and actions. In some cases, they
even purposefully distort that reality for
political gain. The result is that people feel
enraged but also powerless to do anything about
it, which leads to an overwhelming feeling of
being trapped.
The authentic voices of Americans tell us a
far different story from what we hear from the
media, political pundits, many academics, and
political leaders, all of whom believe we have
simply become a more divided society.
Unfortunately, the political strategies pursued
under this false analysis force people to
retreat farther and farther into their
close-knit cirlces of family and friends.
Here is a schedule of blog entries for this
week:
- On Monday, Rich wrote about the notion of "truth" and what it means to people.
- Yesterday, he discussed the role our political leaders play in shaping the State of Our Union.
- Today's blog concerns the need for all of us to step forward and begin to see one another.
- On Friday, Rich will be writing about our pursuit of "happiness" and where that is leading us as a society.
Please don't miss out on this opportunity to engage in a real conversation about the true State of Our Union. Join us by visiting Rich's blog, Redeeming Hope.