A Promise to ‘We the People’ and Our America: New Year, New Wake-up Call on Working Shoulder-to-Shoulder for Social Impact

Doc Cunningham
“Da Island Guy”
Sounding Off Social

Well, the Top 10 list of best concerts in 2023 is out. Did your favorite artist make the cut? The obvious ones on the list come as no surprise, Pitbull, P!nk, Beyoncé Taylor Swift, and so on. But according to USA Today, U2 was the big winner. Their shows are seen less as a concert and more as an experience.

So what if we could come up with the Top 10 list of hometowns for civic engagement in America? Would your community make the cut? Here we are in a leap year with the chance to turn a new leaf in 2024. As folks make plans for better health, more travel and higher earnings, we might also see the new year as a wake-up call on working shoulder-to-shoulder for social impact. It starts out by making a promise to ‘We the People’ and our America.

If Dr. King were at the mic he might direct us to scripture for a metaphor that translates in life. It’s like the story of the fishermen being recruited to join the movement of the Son. They were gonna be taught what it takes to be “fishers of men”. In modern day terms, they’d cast their nets to reach those who would consider civics over politics. When you study America’s history, you’ll find moments of progress in the nation were tied to civics, while moments of pain and social strife were driven by politics. The Son used the movement for sharing spiritual insight and a social impact message. As a Baptist preacher, Dr. King might have also applied this and other metaphors to the civil rights movement.

With civics, the focus is on ‘power in the people’. With politics, the focus is on ‘power in the powerful’. The Son would later impress upon decision makers and the people that ‘power in the system’ and those who’re powerful should not overwhelm or disregard or discredit the ‘power in the people’. By going back in time, America was founded on the notion of power in ‘We the People’, with those word appearing at the top of the U.S. Constitution. It’s just that there was a limited view to those who were property owners. They didn’t fully see the nation as ‘our America’. That mindset seems to resurface and gets in the way from time to time.

Since the new year presents the chance of a do-over, how would we go about fulfilling the promise to ‘We the People’ and our America? Maybe we’d consider that a focus on civics means a new dawning in Democracy, Public Good and American Dream, while a focus on politics might mean more divisiveness, extremism and misinformation. Plus, when it comes to growth & change as individuals or as a nation, there are some things to guard against that could short-circuit our potential: ignorance, immaturity, insecurity, indecision. So, taking a page from the process used by the founders, and updating it for the 21^st century, we can chart a course for “our America” and our personal goals by how we:

1. Write it into Existence

There’s a scripture that says to “write it down, make it plain”. In a sense, that’s what happened during America’s startup. They penned three key documents, Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Those serve as the linchpin for our constitutional, democratic republic form of government. Personal development coaches suggest a similar strategy for goal setting. Write it down, make it plain across your mental, physical, spiritual, financial and emotional well-being, spanning a few years. In other words, growing personally or as nation takes some forethought, not just afterthought.

2. Speak it into Relevance

If you don’t write it down, then at least you gotta speak it into existence/relevance. Those of a certain religious faith believe that God spoke the world into existence with the words, “Let there be..”. What the founders did after the Constitutional Convention was to write/speak America into relevance. They’d write the Federalists Papers and then went on the road telling the colonies what was agreed upon for the new nation. The colonies would later adopt the Constitution as a binding document to govern their affairs as the United States of America. You can just feel the relevance that name holds at home and worldwide.

3. Lead it into Prominence

A startup nation wasn’t enough, there had to be some action that went along with the message. They’d have to lead the nation into prominence. SAIC is embarking on such an effort through the ‘Civic Mondays’ effort to triumph in social spirit as well as the Civics & Community Forum series across government, education and community. This way you can “JAM With Us” to grow organizationally and organically. The Son went with a similar approach with His rollout. Furthermore, by combining the spiritual and the social is what led to the prominence of the Son’s movement as well as the acclaim of the civil rights movement.

4. Release it into Brilliance

Sometimes we’ll see time-lapse pictures of changing weather conditions as a storm moves in and rolls out. We go from sunshine to clouds back to sunshine. What if we could see time-lapse pictures of a flower in bloom? It has access to the natural resources of air, sunlight and water. The flower slowly opens up into its full radiance. What if we could see time-lapse pictures of America as a new dawning in Democracy, Public Good and American Dream? Well, as you “JAM With Us” we’ll bring more civics, more roots & culture into the mix of available resources and watch the nation release into its brilliance.

These days it seems like mass communication is often less about informing and empowering, more about click-baiting and entertaining. We need a bit more click-thread journalism. In addition, there’s an overload of politics focused on ‘power in the powerful’ that overwhelms civics focused on ‘power in the people’. We have some who complain and monetize around the problem, but disappear around the solution. The Top 10 list of hometowns for civic engagement will thrive as we write it into existence, speak it into relevance, lead it into prominence and release the brilliance of our best selves as individuals and a nation.

For more on impacting Democracy & Public Good, Education & Community or Entrepreneurship & American Dream, chime-in at the ‘Civic Mondays’ events or Civics & Community forums. Plus, you can “J.A.M. With Us” (join a movement) in civic engagement, social change and community life. Checkout the Signup Center below.