The Braver Angels of Our Nature
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
—Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address
John Wood, Jr
The quote above by the great American president Abraham Lincoln is the source of our title. He spoke those iconic thoughts in a spirit of reconciliation for the sake of the Union. He had in mind the South; by the date of the utterance above, on March 4, 1961, seven states had seceded.
As we all know, a bloody Civil War ensued. Yet the power of hope contained in those words still resound, a hope for realization of higher frequencies of American potential, the mystic chords of memory of the “out of many, one” ideals. Ideals generate horizons of aspiration and possibility. The better angels of our nature, a soulful goodwill, desires resolution of the ever-present tensions of an open society into a harmonic equilibrium of citizens exercising mutual sovereignty through peaceful participation in the democratic process.
The words above also inspired the letter below, “What We Will Do to Hold America Together,” by Braver Angels, a civic organization dedicated to “uniting red and blue America in a working alliance to depolarize America.” I was informed of the letter by their National Ambassador, John Wood, Jr., whose clarity of voice and poised moral center I find inspiring.
The nation’s deep schisms, enabled by ideological rigidity and political manipulation, the wealth gap and cratering economic mobility, and media (mainstream to social) systems profiteering from polarization—to name just a few—are so profoundly entrenched that over half of Americans polled believe that violence will follow the vote on Nov. 3. This is why we are standing with John Wood, Jr. and Braver Angels to speak out for our democratic values and against violence. If you agree with the following letter, please sign here and pass on the message to your friends and family:
At a moment of danger in this era of divisiveness, We the American People come together to speak for the Union. Some of us will vote for President Trump and others for Vice President Biden. But in this season of intense and legitimate partisanship, we the undersigned commit ourselves also to a higher partisanship – for the maintenance of our Union; for the importance of our shared civic life; and for those feelings of goodwill that Lincoln called the better angels of our nature.
For ourselves and for all Americans, we appeal for the complete disavowal of election-related violence, calls for such violence, or excuse-making for anyone on either side who would commit or tolerate violence as a means of influencing an election.
In a time of growing separation, we pledge ourselves to words and deeds intended to help us find each other as citizens. We start with this commitment: We will not demonize or question the decency of Americans who vote differently from us. When we oppose their political views we will say so with vigor, but we won’t castigate them as persons.
If in the near future we face a constitutional crisis in which our institutions cannot produce consensus on who is the legitimately elected president, we resolve to work together across this chasm for solutions grounded in the Constitution and guided by our democratic and non-violent traditions and our sense of shared destiny.
At stake in this contest is democracy’s North Star – peaceful political transition. It’s a time for opponents, but not for enemies. We the undersigned will work separately for what each of us believes is right, but we will also work together to protect the land we all love – to lift up American citizenship and the American promise in a time of peril and to find in ourselves the understanding that our differences don’t simply divide us, but also can strengthen and complete us.
This Wednesday, the nine-week course above starts. I’m pouring decades of study, insight, and hard-fought wisdom into this exploration of ways to be and become smarter and better in the way we mature as adults, and, by extension, become better citizens, partners, neighbors, co-leaders and co-workers in what W.E.B. DuBois called the “kingdom of culture.”
Each week’s course will take place live from 7-9 pm ET. I will lead, direct, and teach the sessions, but the participants—many of whom are very accomplished and knowledgeable in their own right—will play a crucial role beyond that of being just students. I look forward to their insights, questions, and contributions, which will make this journey extra special for all. Each week will be videotaped for the viewing of participants throughout, but will not be released publicly. There will be some required reading, but mostly suggested resources to supplement each week’s content.
Through cultural literacy, sessions one to three, we’ll journey beyond the falsity of race into the varieties of cultural knowledge and cosmic being; then we’ll journey over the next three sessions into case studies of culture-in-action (European, American, and Black American). We’ll conclude with a personal journey into conscious culture, using our embodied awareness and agency to leverage culture for ourselves and others, rather than following the scripts of our social conditioning and inherited belief systems.
To find out more (and to take one of the few remaining slots), go to CulturalIntelligenceCourse.com
If you’ve never seen a live Jazz Leadership Project presentation, here’s your chance to do so—free. This Thursday @ 9 pm ET, Jewel and I will give a live presentation, “The We Space of Listening: A Jazz Lens.” To sign up for the conference, for free, and see us (and dozens of other amazing presenters), click here.