Enough is Enough.
This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.
For the last several weeks, I have been in deep-listening sessions with nonprofit and foundation leaders from across the country, as I prepare for the new season of the Mission Forward podcast. I knew these conversations would be enlightening, but even I underestimated how clearly one feeling would be expressed across all conversations: a feeling of exhaustion in response to the extended state of volatility, change, uncertainty…overwhelmingly shadowed by a feeling of resolve.
Not contempt.
Not despair.
Not fear.
But, resolve.
Again and again, I heard a willingness to dig in, do what it takes, and navigate through these hard, divisive, and uncertain times. And I heard a true understanding that we'll never move forward if we don't move together.
But how…how always remains the question.
With rising incidents of political violence, threats amplified on social media, increasing polarization of rhetoric, a shrinking middle ground, I felt called to connect some dots this morning for those overwhelmed by this "new, dark normal" as Politico calls it, of violence, coupled with "shadow dockets", economic and environmental uncertainty, and what Anand Giridharadas called in his most recent column a "swelling of civic contempt".
What must we do, where must we go?
And, what does this moment demand of us?
One of the people who joined me in conversation last week—and who will be featured on the podcast later this month—is Rich Harwood, founder and president of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. Rich literally "wrote the book" on how to restore belief in one another and in the nation, and he joined me to share his roadmap for confronting the brokenness of our politics and renewing civic life from the ground up.
My conversation with Rich felt providential. We met on the morning of September 11 and found ourselves reflecting on that moment in time compared to this one. On a beautifully crisp, early fall morning last week—quite like that September 11 morning—he helped me identify five essential reminders for leaders of this time:
First things first: Even in moments of fracture, we’ve known what it is to come together. We've known the feeling of neighbors checking in on neighbors, volunteers across political parties showing up ready to chip in, and people navigating through a sense of grief together. For those of us leading organizations, it's natural to feel a constant state of isolation. But our path forward isn’t solitary, and no one organization can carry the weight of these times alone. Isolation only deepens despair. Togetherness can be its antidote.
Together won't matter if we don't choose to face the reality of this moment with authentic hope. In moments of great divide, we must learn to notice the difference between false hope and authentic hope. False hope tells us everything will be fine if we simply wait it out. Authentic hope requires more: It demands that we face the reality of the moment honestly, and still choose to believe in the possibility of a path forward.
Consider seriously your stitching role in reweaving our nation's civic fabric. As a mentor and previous guest on Mission Forward, Dr. John Paul Lederach often reminds me, reweaving the fabric of our nation looks less like grand gestures to bridge the widest divides and more like a steady, intentional weaving together of community leaders and colleagues. It means starting from the inside out, wherever your innermost point is--strengthening bonds first with those nearest to us, then stretching one thread further, and then another, until we have created a network strong enough to hold a whole community. It means using that feeling of resolve to invest in our own missions—and in the broader mission of community, through partnerships across sectors, across neighborhoods, across lived experiences.
We can’t let today's story limit what's possible for tomorrow. It will never do us good to give into a narrative of scarcity, fear, or contempt. If we have the resolve and the will to move forward, we can choose to lean into the possibility of abundance. Yes, we do have enough vision, enough leadership, and enough people willing to say enough is enough.
Enough IS Enough. That phrase—enough is enough—carries weight. We have said it after every act of political violence, after every mass shooting, after every reminder of our collective vulnerability. And too often, it has rung hollow. But what if we reframed it? As Rich Harwood sees it, 'enough is enough' can also mean: We have enough within us to meet this moment. Enough courage to turn toward, not away. Enough resolve to strengthen our civic culture. Enough imagination to believe that unity is not naïve, but necessary.
For every leader reading this—nonprofit, foundation, or corporate—the call is clear. The work of rebuilding civic trust is not the work of some, but of all. Today, tomorrow, and the day after that, we must choose to:
Model respect.
Create spaces for honest dialogue.
Invest in the slow, necessary work of weaving communities back together.
While the headlines may tempt us to despair, we can choose to live another story: One in which we can meet this moment, with enough resolve, courage, dignity, and authentic hope to change the outcome.
We've come together before. It's time to choose together again.
This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
