U.S. politics should come from a place of grace and gratitude. Here's how we get there
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I’ve been listening to Eva Cassidy a lot. I love the calm radiating from her version of “Fields of Gold” and I am in awe of her breathtaking rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” But at age 33, Eva Cassidy died of cancer.
Six weeks before her death, fellow artists held a benefit concert to raise funds for her health care costs. Eva was helped on stage at the end of the evening and sang one song: “What a Wonderful World.”
Imagine. Instead of focusing on pain, suffering, debt, or despair, she sang “What a Wonderful World.” What if our politics came from a similar place of grace? What if our activism sprang from such gratitude?
It could.
Fred LeMay demonstrates the power of scones and connection
Transformational advocacy springs from these places as volunteers, rather than giving up in discouragement and despair, are trained to have breakthroughs and see themselves in a new light. Gratitude flows when citizens, awakened to their power, contribute to making our world a little more wonderful for all. But where do you start?
Recently I spoke with two activists who got their start in transformational advocacy right here in Nashville. I wanted to know how they began.
Fred LeMay was a commercial insurance underwriter and saw how changes in the climate were affecting the insurance and reinsurance markets. “I was reading climate articles,” he said, “and getting concerned for my kids and grandkids and the future of the planet. I thought maybe I should try to be more active.”
While building and sustaining a healthy chapter can be challenging, LeMay listed three reasons he sticks with it:
Our members of Congress need to know that their constituents care about climate change
It makes me feel good that I’m trying to do something given how crazy our politics are, we just can’t give up
It is a great growth opportunity for me as a chapter leader and team member. I am inspired by our amazing chapter members.”
During COVID, when chapter meetings moved online, LeMay would bake a few dozen scones and deliver them to chapter members before their Zoom calls. “I drove around Nashville and Franklin delivering scones,” he said, “just to connect us somehow.”
Alan Lieserson wanted to make a difference now for his children
Alan Leiserson retired in 2013, after 30 years as an environmental lawyer for The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. He shared one of the things that helped him get into action: “I imagined, 20 years from now, my grown daughters saying: ‘our father did all that environmental work but didn’t do anything about climate change while there was still time.”
Leiserson still had time and decided to act.
He found Citizen’s Climate Lobby in 2019 and began lobbying Congress with a trip to their conference and lobby day in Washington, DC.
“I remember walking the Halls of Congress past all these doorways with names of representatives I’d been hearing about for years,” he said. “Now I was talking to representatives about my own concerns. Walking from meeting to meeting I had this sense of being really empowered. I felt 10 feet tall.”
Leiserson has seen new volunteers, nervous about their first meeting with a member of Congress, grow in confidence after each meeting. “I love seeing that transformation,” he said.
The last song Eva Cassidy sang in public was “What a Wonderful World.” Do you hear gratitude in the voices of Fred LeMay and Alan Leiserson? Isn’t that something you would want for yourself, our nation and for the world?
Sam Daley-Harris is the author of "Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy" (Rivertowns Books 2024) and the founder of RESULTS and Civic Courage. He will speak at the Nashville Public Library Main Branch from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 21st.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: American politics are divisive, but here's proof we can change that
