An Emerging Storyboard.
Add your reflections here:

We the People – An Emerging Storyboard

Each one of us has a role to play in reinventing the American Dream. Your voice matters. This is an avenue for you to share your creative sparks and ideas.

As a guide for your responses, I welcome snippets of your family history that frame your approach to life and view of what it means to be an American. In remembering your family history, you may have an “aha” moment where you perceived someone as “an other” and how that affected you.

What can we do in our own communities to provide a welcome space and a better understanding of our experiences? How can we foster decision making that is based on compassion and facts, rather than fear?

This storyboard is meant to reflect a range of ideas and differing opinions, but it is not a place for hatred. My intention is to represent the breadth and depth of this great American melting pot.

As I receive information, I will collect it into categories and publish it here. My hope is that the reflections will present a mosaic of connection rather than division—revealing how we are more alike than different in our human experience. The goal is to imagine a path forward that includes accountability for our actions, healing, and a better future for us all.

Eliminating key events from the record of history has had enormous bearing — and worse — on the stereotyping of various groups of people. I assigned my students books to expand their knowledge of the real experiences of African Americans, Latin Americans, and Native Americans as valuable contributors to American heritage. I watched my students explore their own ancestry, taking pride in who they were and where they came from.

In the past decade in particular much has happened on a global scale to foster polarizing opinions, heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Disinformation has appeared as a strategic weapon used by some in power, and everyday citizens have become siloed in how we obtain news. The rise of extremism and the war in Ukraine have also had clear impacts on democracy.

I searched my own family’s history to take stock of how we can move forward as a community, as a nation, and as global citizens. Improving ourselves is hard work — trench work — but each generation has to move the needle forward. Understanding where we come from and what we bring to the table means we can have a path to peace.