What’s our role in renewing the path to “A More Perfect Union?”
Harry C Boyte
Senior Scholar in Public Work Philosophy and Co-founder, Institute for Public Life and Work
Augsburg University
Thursday, August 20, 7:00 pm via ZOOM
On March 10, 2020, Freedom House, the Washington-based bipartisan think tank that studies democracies around the world, noted trends in the United States more customarily assigned to fragile democracies: “pressure on electoral integrity, judicial independence, health care and safeguards against corruption. Fierce rhetorical attacks on the press, the rule of law, and other pillars of democracy coming from American leaders, including the President himself.”
This was at the early stages of triple crises -- Covid-19, economic decline, and demonstrations for police reform and racial justice in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man by a policeman in Minneapolis. A fourth looms over us – cataclysmic climate change.
All are inflamed by bitter polarization fed by “the metaphor of war,” which turns issues into partisan warfare and people into “justice warriors” for their cause. The polarization threatens only to deepen in advance of the fall election.
Harry Boyte will speak to how we can develop a “We the People” counterforce to partisan warfare and revitalize democracy as a way of life, becoming democracy workers not warriors.
He will draw on examples from “With Malice Toward None,” an initiative of the depolarizing citizen movement Braver Angels https://braverangels.org/what-we-do/with-malice-toward-none/ Malice Toward None is working with faith communities, colleges and civic groups of different views, in Minnesota and across the country to create a citizen counterforce to bitter conflict around the election. He will also draw on the new document of the Centers for Disease Control Foundation which outlines a vision for healthy and inclusive communities and a path beyond CoVid-19, “Thriving Together: Springboard for Recovery and Resilience in Communities Across the Country.” Springboard draws on the public work philosophy and practices of constructive nonviolence developed by Boyte and his colleagues. The Springboard website is https://thriving.us/
Harry C. Boyte worked for Martin Luther King as a young man and co-chaired the Civic Engagement Subcommittee of the Obama 2008 campaign. He is on the national organizing committee of “With Malice Toward None,” and a consultant to the new Springboard project of the Centers for Disease Control Foundation. Boyte will speak to the State of our Democracy and our responsibilities as citizens.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsdeurrjwrEtD4FAI60vun5Yatsu4YQa3k
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Sponsored by:
St Luke Presbyterian Church, Excelsior United Methodist Church, Gethsemane Lutheran Church, West Metro Climate Action, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, Wright County Indivisible