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As we gather with family and friends this holiday season, it's hard to ignore the brokenness of our country. The divisions we face – political, racial, economic – can make even our neighbors seem distant. These challenges are deeper than any other issue, fueled by opportunity gaps, fear and mistrust.
It's no secret that our communities feel divided, and trust seems hard to come by. Seventy percent of Americans believe the country has become so polarized that we can no longer solve the big issues we face. These fractures make it easy to focus inward and assume that if we don't take care of ourselves, no one else will. But this is not the kind of nation I want for future generations, and this is not the kind of nation we are.
It's tempting to point fingers and blame others for our problems. But here's the hard truth: that won't solve anything.
12 Days of Giving: Team Rubicon leads hurricane relief over the holidays
I say this as someone who has lived and worked in Washington for two decades under many different party leaders. The deep distrust we feel toward each other will not be eliminated, but must be lived with, rebuilt person by person, community by community. Amidst the noise, there is a quiet force that can Start fixing what's broken: the service.
File: A team of AmeriCorps members live in Maggie's Place homes and help with programming. Here, four AmeriCorps members are at a Family Success Center event. (Maggie's place)
Service transcends party lines and differences, No matter the reason. When you volunteer to help a neighbor rebuild after a flood, teach a child to read, serve meals to the hungry, or give a year or more of your life to communities in need through AmeriCorps, you don't care who the person next to you is. You voted for which school they went to or which part of town they were from. You don't question their views. You are simply standing shoulder to shoulder with another person who shares the same desire to make things better.
At a time when the Surgeon General has diagnosed us with a loneliness epidemic, and we're connecting less with people in third-party settings like churches and civic clubs than we used to, we need to get creative in how we build trust and interaction. Relationships. We have to realize that no matter how different we are, there is still more that connects us than divides us. When you serve, you build a bridge, creating connections that make it difficult for fear and division to take hold. You are just humans helping each other.
Right now, many Americans are asking: “What can we do to fix this? How can we move forward when the country feels irreparably divided?” The answer will not come with a new decree or law, nor will there be a dazzling solution that dominates the news cycle. But I promise you that you can find the way forward — and better yet, you can engage in the hard work required, alongside ordinary people far removed from the halls of power.
Over the past two years, we have seen a 5.1 percentage point increase in volunteering with an organization. More and more Americans are coming forward every day. We are more united than you think.
AmeriCorps members have been living by this truth for decades. Whether you're helping communities like Asheville, North Carolina, rebuild in… Facing the devastation caused by Hurricane Helen Or our 10,000 members in schools educating and mentoring children in need of hope, they show us that true leadership and unity don't come from top-down solutions — they come from communities coming together.
The AmeriCorps member exit survey showed that 88% of AmeriCorps members agreed that they were exposed to new ideas and ways of seeing the world during their service. 95% enjoyed interacting with people from different cultures and backgrounds – whether it was someone from a different cultural, socio-economic or ethnic background.
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Through this work we come to understand each other. This is the power of service. It forces us to sit in the same space while focusing on the same goal. This builds something that no election, no legislation, or no debate on social media can build: trust.
Change will come from us – from stepping out of our silos, rolling up our sleeves, and doing the work of trusting, building, and healing together. Imagine if every American, Democrat, Republican and independent alike, decided to serve alongside someone from a different party, zip code, religion or ethnicity.
I say this as someone who has lived and worked in Washington for two decades under many different party leaders. The deep distrust we feel toward each other will not be eliminated, but must be lived with, rebuilt person by person, community by community. Amid the noise, there is a quiet force that can begin to fix what is broken: service.
We don't argue about politics, we work side by side – delivering meals to a senior or filling a library for an elementary school. It won't fix everything, but it may remind us of who we are. This might just remind us that the future of this country does not depend on someone in a state office or a capitol building. It's up to us.
This is not a call for blind optimism. It is a call to action – real, courageous, direct action. America has always been at its best when its people unite to tackle difficult problems. Let's get back to that. Let's stop waiting for direction, or for someone else to lead the way. Let's start with each other – and start giving back.
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Because in service, we not only see humanity, we restore it.
Isn't that something to be grateful for this season of giving?
