Challenge #2: Taking on the Big, Tough, Complex, Intimidating Issues We Face
Why This is Such a Tough Challenge
- These are challenges that do not have evident answers at the beginning and for which there is no historical precedent. There is no certainty of success on which to rely. Each of these issues is tough enough on its own. Taken together they present a daunting challenge.
- They are issues that require committed individual engagement and also collective alignment and effort maintained over an extended period of time. This is the reason that “ordinary” is not good enough and we have to act from our “larger selves” and model true American greatness to be successful.
- Our toughest issues require American Greatness, and they provide the opportunities to model it and continue to develop it. They give us the chance to act from our larger selves – to be courageous, to persevere, to be increasingly resilient, and to find new “bests” as we go.
Choosing/Committing
Part of what makes this such an intimidating challenge is that there are so many of these challenges and they are all different and requires different solution sets. No one can take them all on and there is no common set of solutions that can be customized to fit. We can play different roles and make different contributions to some of these, but the whole set is beyond any of us.
So, the tasks are (a) to choose which of these challenges we will commit to take on and (b) to choose the role we will play in each. There are other topics, but the ten below are good examples of the varied topics all in play now. Taking on any of them gives us a chance to act powerfully as citizens and model the qualities of American Greatness (even if we start small).
- We take on climate change and deal with the various impacts
- We take on comprehensive immigration reform
- We take on the economic revitalization of rural America
- We take on closing wage and wealth disparities
- We continue to counter racism as well as recover from the consequences of our treatment of our native populations.
- We build our solidarity and minimize socio/political polarization and the alienation that increasingly affects us
- We take on the challenges of rapidly developing AI and its impact
- We ensure the basics for people – food security, housing, equitable cost-effective healthcare, education, safe communities, etc.
- We hold the line against terrorism and aggressive authoritarian regimes that threaten the America and the American experiment
- We respect our diversity of political and social beliefs and use it to creatively deal with the new challenges constantly thrown at us – together
Four Basic Strategies - Common Across the Topics
Despite the variation across topics, there are a few common strategies that we can employ regardless of which we commit to.
These actions require a good deal of thought and exploration and often involve engaging with others. They almost always require going outside our comfort zones to some degree.
1. Learn about the big tough issues we face and what can be done about them.
This can feel overwhelming, but the more we know, the more evident possible individual actions become.
The amount of learning required is one big reason why it’s a trap to try to take on too many of the big tough issues and why we need to pick a couple and focus our actions on them.
And we need to remember that the actions required to become educated about these issues are part of our contribution to the solutions. It’s not just “prep” or “getting ready.” It’s required committed action, and it is part of the solution.
2. Make the individual contributions we can make.
Joining with others to promote systemic change is one approach we can take. We can also focus on what we can do individually. This can range from contributing financially, volunteering, and using our networks, to simply joining organizations, using our positions in organizations, and championing issues with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Despite the systemic nature of these issues, our individual actions are highly significant.
3. Join with others and take part in the advocacy process for the big tough issues we engage with.
There are lots of roles in the advocacy process that we can play – lots of ways to contribute. We don’t need to be professional advocates.
We do, however, need to support the advocacy processes to generate systemic change. One benefit of being part of the advocacy process is that there are a lot of opportunities to be engaged with others, which can be very supportive. This is deceptively important.
4. Act from our “larger selves” and a sense of significance.
This starts with the realization – and acceptance – that we matter. We are significant. What we do matters. We don’t need to solve these issues – we can’t. But we do need to be off the sidelines and contributing what we can contribute. We can start small, but we need to “be in the game.”
And that means acting from our “larger selves.” It means drawing on our values, our courage, our ability to persevere, our resilience, and the competencies that we have developed over a lifetime. It means acting large even if we feel small. If we look, we will find what we need, although we will probably be outside our normal comfort zones.
There will always be a pull to retreat and to act from our smaller selves – our sense of impotence in the face of tough reality, our desire to be taken care of, our desire to blame others and nurse grievances, acting from fear and anger, etc. That pull is natural, and we are challenged to acknowledge it and then say, “No, I’m acting from my larger self.”
Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one manor one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery and ignorance, injustice, and violence... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.