Happy Birthday, America. Where Do We Want to Go from Here?
Fireworks over Boston. Image via Matthew Landers on Unsplash.
July 4th is America’s birthday. As a nation, we are 244 years old. Often birthdays cause us to reflect on where we’ve been, what’s gone well, what hasn’t gone so well, and what we want the future to look like. I hope this Independence Day will inspire us all to do this.
We are in a time of transition and transformation. A public health and economic crisis, intertwined with a social justice movement, has shaken us to our foundations. It has been an intense time with a lot of losses. But it’s also a time of opportunity as we rebuild.
Where do we go from here? We get to decide. As I work with cities and towns across America, I see lots of hopeful signs that we’ll rise stronger than before.
What I see is a nation taking charge of its future, one community at a time. We’re not waiting on government to “fix” things. We’re working together locally to find our own solutions and reinvent ourselves. As I work with cities and towns across the country, I’m caught up in the energy generated by citizen-powered change. It inspires me.
Folks everywhere are pulling together to keep local economies strong. Business leaders are reaching out to each other to share wisdom and resources. (Chambers play a big role in this.) As the pandemic disrupted the normal flow of commerce, small businesses have found creative ways to stay alive. It’s been wonderful to see citizens throwing their support behind local restaurants, stores, and other mom-and-pop enterprises.
As a people, we’re rediscovering how great our small towns really are. I love this Kia ad that celebrates the Great American Road Trip. It’s a touching reminder of how a reset forces a shift in priorities. No doubt about it: Being in a car with your family creates a rare opportunity to give your undivided attention to those who matter most.
Big transformations are happening nationally, too. Out of necessity, entire industries are disrupting themselves. Education is finding new and better ways to teach using digital platforms. Healthcare is moving to a telemedicine model that shows lots of promise. The changes we’re seeing bring some challenges, but there are many positives as well. For sure, they illustrate the power of human ingenuity and our ability to adapt and keep moving forward.
Some of the most meaningful shifts are cultural and social. They are conscience-driven. We are finally getting real about race relations. As a nation, we’re doing a lot of soul-searching and having the hard conversations. We are taking down monuments of leaders connected to times in history when values were out of alignment with what we now know is right.
Fireworks over Sacramento. Image via Ruvim Noga on Unsplash.
Real action has come out of these national conversations. We’re rethinking law enforcement policies and the role of police. We’re improving training and doing a better job of holding accountable those who break the rules and/or use excessive force. We’re putting funds into other community sources like mental health. These shifts are making us a better nation.
As a community builder, my great hope is that we’ll see a groundswell of interest in minority entrepreneurship. We can find creative ways to invest in women and people of color. I see it on a regular basis: When we practice economic inclusion on a local level, many thriving businesses emerge. They add great richness to our communities.
This Independence Day, I’d like to see more Americans put self-interest on the back burner. It’s time to start looking at the world as if every child were our child, every neighborhood were our neighborhood, and every community were our community.
We can all strive to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. We can all work inside our communities to educate ourselves, get engaged and promote civic engagement, reach out to those around us and connect them. And we can work toward justice.
It’s time for a personal internal revolution. As Gandhi would say, it’s time to be the change we wish to see in the world. Let’s not wait on government mandates or policies to compel us to act. Instead, let’s make changes because they are right and because they matter. The most powerful force in the world is community after community of Americans doing the right thing.
Cover image via Robin Deutsch on Unsplash.
About the Author
Quint Studer is author of Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change Is Reshaping America and Wall Street Journal bestseller The Busy Leader’s Handbook: How to Lead People and Places That Thrive. He is founder of Pensacola’s Studer Community Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on improving the community’s quality of life, and Vibrant Community Partners, which coaches communities in building out a blueprint for achieving growth and excellence. Quint speaks and works with communities across the country, helping them execute on their strategic plans, create a better quality of life, and attract and retain talent and investment. He is a businessman, a visionary, an entrepreneur, and a mentor to many. He currently serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of West Florida, Executive-in-Residence at George Washington University, and Lecturer at Cornell University.
For more information, please visit www.thebusyleadershandbook.com, www.vibrantcommunityblueprint.com, and www.studeri.org.
Katy Clagett is a commercial real estate appraiser and activist. She joins the podcast today to talk about the ways that bottom-up projects can build community, as well as her experiences with spearheading this kind of project.