November 11, 2020 | Read Time: 1 minute
Repairing the frayed social fabric of the nation in the wake of a highly contentious election will require a focus at the local and community levels: Don’t expect our national leaders to make it happen, said David Brooks, who helped found a national effort to bring people together.
Getting close to other citizens — including people we disagree with and especially people living life on the margins of society — is particularly important, Brooks said Tuesday at an Independent Sector post-election forum.
“I find it very hard to hate up close,” Brooks said.
Brooks cited Keisha Daniels, co-founder and COO of Sisters of Watts, as someone who is reaching out to people in need in very personal ways. The Los Angeles nonprofit provides the most basic levels of support for people, such as delivering groceries and providing backpacks for schoolkids.
I find it very hard to hate up close.
“The agents of social change will be at the community and local level,” Brooks said. “If faith in each other disappears, the nation goes away.”
Brooks and other speakers said the nation is at a perilous point in its history. “When you have low social trust, basically institutions cease to function,” he said. “Societies fall apart when trust fails.”
Brooks, a New York Times columnist, helped found Weave, an effort at the Aspen Institute to identify and support people and organizations that are creating a sense of community while improving the lives of people in need.
Brooks also said that national service could be instrumental in repairing the nation’s wounds. He said he has spoken with some Republican lawmakers since the election who are interested in the idea.
“If ever we’ve had a moment where we need national service, this is the moment,” Brooks said.
