On Community Hope Even Amid Polarization, Derision, and Disinformation

Stress and conflict. As humans, at times we will experience and generate conflict as each of us attempts to engage, interact, and understand the world.

Reflecting on what was 2023 (on the Gregorian calendar) it seems like this year was one of conflict — both in terms of an increasing number of regional conflicts as well as within pluralistic societies. Yet we humans are more than just sources of conflict within our families, within our societies, and across our identities and regions.

We can be creators of two powerful forces in the world too, namely reconciliation and community hope.

More than a century and a half ago, President Lincoln took his second inaugural oath on 04 March 1865 — six weeks before his assassination. The morning began with wet, miserable weather and his inaugural speech was brief, just 700 words. As he put on his glasses to read, eyewitnesses recorded that the weather calmed, and the sun finally came out for that day.

Lincoln spoke of both reconciliation and community hope with his concluding lines, inviting the work ahead to be done “With malice towards none; with charity for all”.

Such a message of healing, recognizing President Lincoln was saying these words as the final throes of the U.S. Civil War were still being waged, perhaps embodies another part of Lincoln’s speech — namely an appeal to “the better of angels of our nature”.

Yet both stress and conflict are human. And 2023 has been a year where conflict’s associated conundrums of polarization, derision, and disinformation casting shadows on well-intended sources of light were all present and, in some cases, increasing locally for some and globally for all.

Handwritten portion of President Lincoln’s draft speech, including an appeal to “the better angels of our nature” (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

So where — and when — will we find reconciliation for our current challenges?

With the winter holidays arriving, I find my mind drifting back to experiences I had two and half decades ago. Specifically in 1998, I traveled Emory University to South Africa to volunteer with a local Cape Town newspaper. Earlier that year, I had built a computer model of the spread of HIV/AIDS which for that part of the world was approaching epidemic levels. Unfortunately, I experienced significant headwinds in attempting to write about the concern — in part because the country was in denial at the highest levels, with then-President Mbeki claiming the virus was a western myth, a.k.a. political disinformation before we in the United States experienced such concerns regularly.

Such headwinds were frustrating and such disinformation amid the public health impacts of HIV/AIDS on mothers, children, and entire families was heart wrenching. I ended up teaching HIV/AIDS prevention in the local township of Khayelitsha instead before returning to the States to both work at a Microsoft affiliate and volunteer as a Habitat for Humanity International crew leader. Later I would finish my degree and join the CDC’s Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program.

South Africa lost a lot during that dark decade — already having lost a lot under the earlier darkness of apartheid. However, things cumulatively did change for the country with regards to HIV/AIDS, with infant and child health improving dramatically when things finally started to turn around in the mid-2000s and 2010s. The government stopped insisting HIV/AIDS was a Western myth and people sought treatment and preventative transmission efforts expanded significantly with much success.

In a sense, what had been dark storm clouds parted — at least for this issue — though it took several years, persistence, and the work of hundreds of thousands of committed people to turn things around.

Looking towards 2024, I remain hopeful in what people from all backgrounds and communities can create together.

Specifically, in the twenty-five years since my time in South Africa, I have experienced both successes and headwinds amid various efforts — headwinds that included the sting of polarization, derision, and disinformation casting shadows on well-intended sources of light.

Part of me thinks I should have gotten used to such things by now — perhaps developed thick skin or become numb to such headwinds. Candidly though, I have not. Yet I have also not lost the feeling that we can create reconciliation and community hope even amid the darkest of situations.

Two events in the ten days embodied positive energy — and I want to thank the friends and colleagues associated with each:

• An impromptu video conversation with Mark Sadovick and Stephen Hecht (co-author of Nonflict: The Art of Everyday Peacemaking) brought a smile and a reminder that everyday peacemaking is a daily, never-ending task. I highly recommend checking out the resources they have available for adapting Nonflict to both professional and personal activities.
• The opportunity to join Hunter Mueller, Melissa, Pamela, August, and others last week in New York for two December events assembling expert C-Suite technology, information, AI, and security officers similarly brought energy and a sense of camaraderie amid the challenges surrounding both private and public sector organizations.

Each of these events demonstrated there are communities of action present doing what they can to make positive differences in distinct parts of human, organizational, and social lives. And perhaps the drive to make a meaningful difference — somewhere, someway, for others beyond our own selves — is the other part of what makes us human.

I will close 2023 by asking each of you — where do you find sources of positive energy to sustain and bring together others in fellowship?

Here’s to 2024 providing opportunities for different communities to come together.