Call to Action -- What is ours to do?

I voted today. I took my ballot to the designated drop-off box outside our town community center. There was a policeman present when I voted. No crowds, no lines. I just put my ballot in the box, got back in my car, and drove home. It felt very strange not seeing other people today.  My mood was somber.  The COVID-19 pandemic, protests against systemic racism, political polarization, and economic disparities have brought unprecedented disruption

• I heard that a volunteer for the COVID vaccine trial just died.

• The police say that Breonna’s death was not because of racism.

• And the man in the White House calls the media ‘monstrous.’

President Obama warns us from becoming numb and immune to the lies, hate, and disrespect that is coming towards us.

Questions swirl in my brain, Swirling like the golden leaves of autumn. Questions swirl for the teams and leaders I work with:

• What is mine to do?

• What is yours to do?

• What is ours to do together?

4 actions come to mind immediately — actions for leaders, for coaches for all humans 

Pause, Breathe, Reflect and Act

• Listen – to the care, concerns, hopes, and wishes of others.

• Ask questions – for the sake of generating depths of understanding

• Speak up – for the sake of sharing and showing up as leaders

• Move into Action -- for the sake of others, for the sake of our culture, for the sake of generating and transforming our world one step at a time.

Let’s ask ourselves, 

• What is the cost for us if we do not take action?

• How long can we go on watching the daily erosion of truth and dignity?

• How have so many of us come to feel so isolated, alone, and deeply concerned?

Is it the isolation of COVID? Is it the fragmentation of our media-focused existence? Are we like bees in a hive, millions of us slavishly focused on the internet oracle, not even seeing one another? 

So many of us have had to stop from holding conversations and work about race, equity and diversity, and inclusion.  Are we being censored?  

What is ours to do?

My colleagues, clients, and friends struggle to talk about what we are witnessing. We have run out of words to talk about the daily outrages. Each day’s offense against decency dwarfs the day’s before. It is mind-numbing. We don’t have command of the words called for to describe the steady descent of civility into chaos. We lack fluency in the language of malfeasance and evil. 

We care.  And together, we must take care of all that we care about. 

• What more can I do?

• What more can you do?

• What more can we do together?

I am not asking rhetorical questions. I want to know. 

I am inviting us to enter generative and action-oriented conversations for the sake of reframing and generating our future and the current state of being. Let's continue to explore together.