The nation is reeling from hurricanes, earthquakes, the Great Recession, two wars, and severe public sector budget cuts, among other challenges. A broken politics sits at the heart of our inability to move forward. But beneath that is something even more important and vital to our long-term health: people clinging to their sense of humanity and dignity.

I recognize that these words – “humanity and dignity” – may seem too lofty or abstract to gain much traction in today’s rough-and-tumble world. They don’t serve to score any political points, strike fear into anyone’s heart, or demonize anyone. And I realize that there are far easier topics for me to choose to write about today, including the natural and man-made disasters I referred to above.

But as I travel the country, people want to discuss something deeper, closer to their everyday lives, and more significant to their futures. Most fundamentally, I hear people talking about the need to restore a basic sense of trust in society. There are too many false promises amid the relatively few moments when people feel they are actually being squared with. People want to know they can rely on one another – their neighbors, leaders, and the organizations that purport to serve them.

Furthermore, I hear people trying to find a way to broaden their circles of compassion. They believe we have lost an ability to see and hear one another and thus the ability to care for one another. And yet, how can we expand our circles of compassion when so many of us are circling the wagons out of fear?

And I hear people saying that we must demonstrate that we still have the individual and collective ability to get things done. Here, people’s concerns are less about how big and grand the actions are than about restoring faith and confidence that we can, together, do something.

Of course, there are many pockets where good things are getting done; where effective programs are being implemented; and where people are working night and day to make a difference. For instance, just this weekend, I was struck by how well so many public officials responded to Hurricane Irene; to me, many of their actions were smart and brave and knew no partisan boundaries.

So, then, what is my concern today? It is that people are telling us something that we must hear: notions of trust, compassion, making good on promises and pledges, faith and confidence, and a sense of possibility, these are all basic human desires. They transcend who wins particular elections, the level of campaign contributions, or the amount of press a new proposal gets. The challenge is to make space for people to express these human desires; to create genuine ways for people to make them real in their lives.

So when you hear a politician give a speech, or another organization tries to ‘mobilize’ a community for action, or there’s some new civic engagement initiative, ask yourself: How does this effort reflect people’s yearning to reclaim a sense of humanity and dignity? And then ask: What am I doing in my daily life that enables someone to reclaim their sense of humanity and dignity? It is such basic, but important, tests I believe we must pass if the actions we take are to address the core of people’s concerns today.

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A dynamic public speaker, Rich Harwood is a frequent keynote for foundations and national organizations. He is an expert contributor on national and syndicated media outlets including MSNBC, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN’s Inside Politics, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Special Report with Brit Hume, C-SPAN, and many others. He is also the author of Hope Unraveled: The people\’92s retreat and our way back (2005), Make Hope Real: How we can accelerate change for the public good (2008) and numerous studies, articles and essays chronicling vital issues of our time. His most recent written work, Why We\’92re Here: The Powerful Impact of Public Broadcasters When They Turn Outward, is being published and distributed in Spring 2011. You can follow him on twitter @RichHarwood and facebook.com/richharwood.

You can read Rich’s posts every Tuesday on State of the Re:Union’s website.

As the 2012 presidential election draws closer, we are beginning to witness the trash talk and negative campaigning that we all have become familiar with in the past.

But this path assuredly will only deepen people’s disgust with politics and public life, and their belief that we cannot get things done in the country. And it ignores the basic fact that people hold genuine aspirations for their lives and communities that they want to act on and make real.

In interviewing people for our new Main Street study*, I am struck by people’s yearning to re-engage and re-connect with one another. They know that in these topsy-turvy times they cannot go it alone. They want to find a way to restore their belief that as individuals, and collectively, we have the ability to get things done.

So, before the candidates embrace the strategy of destruction, they should take a long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves a basic human question: “What do people fundamentally want in their lives, in public life, and from one another?”

I would ask each of us to do the same.

For going down the path of destruction may help to take down an opponent, but it will never serve to build up a community or the country. On this path, we may demonize and push each other into a corner, but we will never figure out our shared beliefs and work to improve people’s lives.

Let me be clear: I am not arguing for anyone to capitulate or be passive in today’s public square. Rather, I am calling for real leadership, in which, for now, we find even small ways to get this country moving on a better trajectory. In this regard, Washington, D.C. and our state capitals may be the last place where such positive movement occurs. But that doesn’t mean the rest of us must sit idly by and watch – and wait. Each of us can step forward now, turn toward one another, and start to demonstrate what is possible.

Maybe, then, our presidential candidates will see what we really want from them. And maybe then we will all feel like we’re moving the country in a better direction.

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*Main Street is a national study we are undertaking to inform a new “public life” report with the support of the Kettering Foundation called Citizens and Politics II slated to be published later this year. You can read Citizens and Politics I here.

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A dynamic public speaker, Rich Harwood is a frequent keynote for foundations and national organizations. He is an expert contributor on national and syndicated media outlets including MSNBC, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN’s Inside Politics, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Special Report with Brit Hume, C-SPAN, and many others. He is also the author of Hope Unraveled: The people\’92s retreat and our way back (2005), Make Hope Real: How we can accelerate change for the public good (2008) and numerous studies, articles and essays chronicling vital issues of our time. His most recent written work, Why We\’92re Here: The Powerful Impact of Public Broadcasters When They Turn Outward, is being published and distributed in Spring 2011. You can follow him on twitter @RichHarwood and facebook.com/richharwood.

You can read Rich’s posts every Tuesday on State of the Re:Union’s website.

State of the Re:Union is committed to bringing our country back together, and our organization, No Labels, is working to make that goal a reality. No Labels is a national citizens’ movement of Independents, Democrats, and Republicans that urges bipartisan cooperation in the interest of common sense solutions. It is people like the readers of State of the Re: Union who will help change the culture of gridlock in Washington and move our country forward.

The political debate in Washington is at its most partisan in decades. No matter the topic – whether it is health care, the debt ceiling, or anything in between –politicians today are under the command of their political parties. This results in a government that is dominated by ideological extremes, which is both inefficient and unrepresentative of the average, moderate majority of Americans, 56% who believe that compromise yields the best solutions.

No Labels was formed in 2010 and represents these Americans, ensuring they do not get lost in the offensive politics of hyper-partisanship. The fiscal crisis is an issue that can affect all Americans, and a deal on the national debt should not fall victim to the myopic partisanship of lawmakers.

In our most recent No Labels national poll, 92% of Americans fear the fiscal crisis will negatively impact their financial future and 68% see the crisis as a threat to their job security. While this crisis keeps Americans up at night, Congress is scheduled to take more days off than working days before the August 2 deadline. Our latest campaign, No Deal, No Break, lets Congress know that inaction is unacceptable. No Deal, No Break calls on Congress to not take any vacations until a deal is reached on the national debt, with 83% of those surveyed agreeing with our campaign.

Both chambers of Congress have now heeded our call. Last week, the Senate decided to shorten their July 4th break, and today the House announced the cancellation of their upcoming mid-July recess.

At a time where politicians use toxic rhetoric to nurture pet projects and stall legislation, voters need to make a stand for bipartisanship. Americans acknowledge defaulting on our debt would be highly destructive to our already-fragile economy. A majority of polled Democrats, Republicans, and Independents said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who works with colleagues from across the aisle to reach a deal on the debt. The tide has turned in favor of bipartisanship across America. Now is the time to ensure Washington gets the message.

To learn more about No Labels, please visit our website at nolabels.org where you can sign our No Deal, No Break letter to congress. No Labels: Not Left. Not Right. Forward.

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State of the Re:Union is thrilled to be working with No Labels. Politics can feel so toxic at times and can be a source of division. So many of these political battles are played out on a national stage, but from spending time in so many wonderful communities throughout the country, we know how much the end result of this type of partisanship can hit locally. Although No Labels discusses D.C. a good deal, their reach, their message, their mission is permeating through communities small and large throughout the country. Be sure to look for their pieces, appearing regularly on the State of the Re:Union website.

More politicians are mobilizing supporters and raising buckets of dollars through “money blurts” – intentionally-timed, incendiary comments about opponents that stoke social media and rake in cash. But we live at a time when we need to mobilize people to address our growing concerns, not divide them. Below are two sets of sound bites, one rooted in hate, the other in hope. The hopeful ones you can bank on as antidotes to growing negativity in public life.

The article in yesterday’s Washington Post showed how politicians are doing the equivalent of yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre, knowing full well what they’re saying is wrong and will have negative repercussions, but they do it anyway. In public life, such comments undermine trust, make the public square toxic, and push people further away from one another.

The Post offered examples of “money blurts” used by Democrats and Republicans alike. You may remember the one in which Representative Joe Wilson blurted out in the middle of President Obama’s State of the Union message, “You lie!”

Below you’ll find two columns: on the left are negative (even hate-filled) blurts noted in the Post article; on the right, alternate ones I have found engender authentic hope in people. These latter ones are time-tested, positive “blurts” you can start using today. Notice how the hateful ones work to divide people, while the hopeful ones actively engage people.

Hate	Hope
“You lie!” You have “anti-American views” You are “turning our country into a nation of slaves” About health care reform: “Don’t get sick, and if you get sick, die soon”	How can we get things moving in the right direction? Why do you say that? What will it take for me to earn your trust? What in your daily life gives you hope?

If we’re going to effectively address our pressing challenges today – such as how to ensure that every child gets a good education – then we must find ways to mobilize Americans to come back into the public square, join arms, and work together. My own work suggests that people are yearning to re-engage and re-connect; indeed, they want to restore their belief in our individual and collective ability to get things done, not just for our own good, but the common good.

If you agree, then use those blurts that engender authentic hope. What’s more, offer here your own examples of when you’ve heard sound bites rooted in hope or hate. And let me know how things go.

Let’s get things moving in a better direction.

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A dynamic public speaker, Rich Harwood is a frequent keynote for foundations and national organizations. He is an expert contributor on national and syndicated media outlets including MSNBC, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN’s Inside Politics, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Special Report with Brit Hume, C-SPAN, and many others. He is also the author of Hope Unraveled: The people’s retreat and our way back (2005), Make Hope Real: How we can accelerate change for the public good (2008) and numerous studies, articles and essays chronicling vital issues of our time. His most recent written work, Why We’re Here: The Powerful Impact of Public Broadcasters When They Turn Outward, is being published and distributed in Spring 2011. You can follow him on twitter @RichHarwood and facebook.com/richharwood.

You can read Rich’s posts every Tuesday on State of the Re:Union’s website.

Simple outrage would be the easy (and potentially right) response to the crazy situation in which Rep. Anthony Weiner finds himself embroiled. But, it’s more pain and sadness I feel today. While Weiner may yet have to resign his congressional seat, I wonder what the real cost is to the rest of us, what relationship we want with our leaders, and what we will do.

I’m in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, today to conduct the second focus group of a series to be held across the nation with a cross-section of Americans on the state of politics and public life. This year marks the 20th anniversary of our landmark study, Citizens and Politics: A View from Main Street, which we’re updating, again in conjunction with the Kettering Foundation. In Detroit last week, where I held the first conversation, people could not name a single “leader” they trust.

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In our hopes to hope again, the result is that we jump from one political leader to another, in search for Mr. or Ms. Right, while political leaders become cartoon-like figures, contorting themselves to fit different political niches.

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Weiner’s actions may only deepen the negative, damning narrative Americans have about their leaders. Again and again I hear people say that political leaders are crooks, self-aggrandizing, concerned only with their own personal and partisan interests.

Meantime, our political leaders hold themselves up to be the final arbiters of truth and morality, all-knowing, even unblemished heroes. They seek our adoration and absolute approval.

To me, both approaches are sorely wanting. For in this construct there is little room for a real or authentic relationship. Give-and-take is replaced by bluster and condemnation. Finger-pointing and blame becomes the norm. Understanding is victim to shallowness. The quick fix is the coin of the realm.

In our hopes to hope again, the result is that we jump from one political leader to another, in search for Mr. or Ms. Right, while political leaders become cartoon-like figures, contorting themselves to fit different political niches. The upshot is that we lose sight of reality, people’s real needs and aspirations, and what it takes to create progress together. We forfeit the possibility to get good things done. And in this ugly process too often we give up on decent, honorable leaders.

As I watched Weiner’s press conference yesterday while in Chicago’s O’Hare airport, I couldn’t help but think about how fraught with frailties our lives are and how things so quickly can fall apart. In recent months, we’ve witnessed such human frailties as the result of natural disasters in Japan, Alabama, and Joplin, MO, among others.

And yet, such frailties are the result more times than not of our own making, as is the case with Weiner. He was forced in public to reveal what may have been his deepest, darkest private secret. Who knows the personal demons that caused Weiner to go down this path – he will need to figure that out.

But this latest episode causes me to wish that we would not place our leaders on pedestals, nor ask them to be super-human. In return, leaders would act with greater humility, and understand they are neither omnipotent nor omnipresent. They are human, frailties and all.

I’m not suggesting that you or I simply forgive Weiner’s frailties; he will have to work out his personal and public future, and each of us will come to our own conclusion about his actions. But, here’s the kicker: so long as we remain on the current path, we are destined to encounter even more anger and frustration – and sadness.

Simply throwing up our hands in disgust about Weiner will not enable our communities and the country to move ahead; nor will looking for the perfect leader. There are good people all around us; let’s find them and lend them our support.

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A dynamic public speaker, Rich Harwood is a frequent keynote for foundations and national organizations. He is an expert contributor on national and syndicated media outlets including MSNBC, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN’s Inside Politics, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Special Report with Brit Hume, C-SPAN, and many others. He is also the author of Hope Unraveled: The people’s retreat and our way back (2005), Make Hope Real: How we can accelerate change for the public good (2008) and numerous studies, articles and essays chronicling vital issues of our time. His most recent written work, Why We’re Here: The Powerful Impact of Public Broadcasters When They Turn Outward, is being published and distributed in Spring 2011. You can follow him on twitter @RichHarwood and facebook.com/richharwood.

You can read Rich’s posts every Tuesday on State of the Re:Union’s website.