Civil society organizations have always held our county together!
We probably have to go back to the Civil War to find a time where we were more divided. Regardless of how you voted, I think we can all agree that our country is odds with itself. So it can be helpful to go back to history and reflect on observers from the past. One of them was Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman, who travel around the United States in the late 1700s making insightful observations about American Society. Here is what he had to say about civil society organizations, which today we would refer to as nonprofit or voluntary organizations:
“Americans of all ages, conditions and all dispositions constantly unite together. … To hold fetes, found seminaries, build inns, construct churches, distribute books, dispatch missionaries to the antipodes. They establish hospitals, prisons, schools by the same method. Finally, if they wish to highlight a truth or develop an opinion by the encouragement of a great example, they form an association…
Among democratic nations all citizens are independent and weak; they can achieve almost nothing by themselves and none of them could force his fellows to help him. Therefore they sink into a state of impotence, if they do not learn to help each other voluntarily. But by joining forces in an association, individuals could solve the collective action problem.â€
It will not be government or business that will help to bring our country together. It will be our local Food banks, our churches, synagogues and mosques; our advocacy organizations, environment, organizations, nonprofit healthcare systems, Farmers associations. These are the places Americans of all stripes come together to address our common problems, have civil conversations, disagree without being disagreeable, find ways to make our community, nation and world a little better place.
