You may want to help bridge the polarized differences that you encounter among your acquaintances or community. The Divided Community Project has a few ideas for you. You can feel free to share these resources with others without checking with the project if you are not doing so as part of a profit-making enterprise.
American & Community Spirit
“Most Americans welcome the voice that lifts them out of themselves. They want to be a better people. They want to help make this a better country. When the American spirit awakens, it transforms worlds.”
- John Gardner, in David Broder, John Gardner’s Challenge, The Washington Post, July 3, 2002.
If we discuss our shared aspirations, we tend to keep in mind that we have joined a venture larger than ourselves—one that we care deeply about and one that we want to preserve for future generations. The following resources build on this concept, encouraging community members to consider developing a "Community Spirit" or tell stories about their vision of an American Spirit. In addition, DCP is pleased to share our efforts to identify an "American Spirit" and our efforts to articulate such a vision for our nation.
Divided Community Project, 2019
- Download executive summary
- Download guide
At a local level, communities can benefit as well from identifying a statement of what they value that helps unite their residents across their differences. They may become more engaged in improving the community and more willing to solve problems despite their differences.
In this guide, the Divided Community Project suggests a process to help communities articulate their spirit.
his storytelling initiative builds on the work of a diverse group of Americans who were convened by the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law’s Divided Community Project late in 2018 and came to a consensus on some over-arching aspirations that Americans share and value deeply -- an American Spirit. They agreed that Americans seek to be innovative and a positive, “can do” people and to unite in our determination to be inclusive and to appreciate individuality. We have not achieved our goals yet, but that is no reason to abandon them.
While this publication offers ideas for prompting creative storytelling by a gathering of neighbors and friends, it is a guide only. A special aspect of storytelling is that you have the flexibility to design a conversation that works best for your group!
If we discuss our shared aspirations, we tend to keep in mind that we have joined a venture larger than ourselves—one that we care deeply about and one that we want to preserve for future generations. We especially benefit by discussing our core aspirations when, as now, the differences that have always characterized our nation turn vitriolic, when our inability to work together becomes a drag on our progress. A widely-embraced American Spirit can motivate us as well as stir within us a generous spirit toward each other. It might become the catalyst to the continued building of our nation and cause those feeling alienated to join in the effort.
Unfortunately, we do not seem to know what aspirations we share. In polling, over 70 percent say that we are losing an American Spirit. For this reason, the Divided Community Project at The Ohio State University, in collaboration with the Kettering Foundation, designed and conducted a process to articulate the current American Spirit. This report traces that process, its results, the evidence that it would be widely embraced if widely communicated, and some ideas to spread the word.
Americans share a sense that we want to be innovative and positive —a “can do” people—unified in our commitment to be inclusive and to value individuality. For ideas that will stimulate others’ thinking about an American Spirit, follow these links to ideas for speeches, children’s artwork, lesson plans for teaching children embody an American Spirit story in art, and conversations with friends.
Post-Election Conversations
In a politically polarized environment, you and your acquaintances may avoid conversations about a recent election. But the failure to hold those conversations means that you share and learn less. Here are a few ideas on how to hold these difficult conversations while preserving relationships.
Divided Community Project, 2020