At this week's Round Table, Kenisha and Madeline spoke with Debilyn Molineaux, Founder and CEO of The Bridge Alliance, which is working to create a “game changing” movement that shifts the underlying dynamics of power, politics, and participation in our country in order to strengthen values. The Alliance is based on five very powerful principles: See the best in people, Educate each other, Seek solutions, Acknowledge differences, and Act on commonalities. We agreed that we would LOVE to see these principles more in play in schools and society at large. We talked about the power–and challenge–of striving to revitalize civil society through democratic values and working to instill trust in the system and its values. What’s critical is that everyday citizens be at the heart of doing so–Debilyn underscored that the first three words of the constitution are “we the people” and that’s what we should be steeped in. We spoke about how fraught bipartisanship is these days, with Debilyn sharing her concerns that some older folks have an overly rosy view of it and some young people want to to give up on it altogether because they’ve never seen it work. Debilyn shared what she refers to as her “embodied sense of optimism,” fueled by belief that the future her generation is leaving young people can be so much better. We all agreed that we need to become the citizens WORTHY of a thriving, just democracy. Thank you for listening!
