The fundamental question facing any community or society is how its members are going to be with each other.
This question is more pressing now than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic is taking lives, and the shelter-in-place directives aimed at saving lives are devastating many people’s livelihoods. A natural disaster is creating a social and economic disaster.
And yet in the midst of these disasters, many people are seeing each other in new ways –
seeing
in the sense of paying attention, being present, and acknowledging each other’s humanity.
In our COVID-19 world, we are
seeing
grocery store clerks
and their dedication to keeping us fed. We are
seeing
teachers
and appreciating their work as never before. We are
seeing
takeout and delivery
drivers
with an awareness of what lies behind their showing up at our doors.
We are also
seeing
people who are vulnerable, and we are taking action to care for them. At an individual level, we are
sewing face masks
. We are shifting Little Free Libraries to
Little Free Pantries
. We are reaching out to
support local small businesses
that are part of our regular routines and that are suffering when people stay away.
We are also acting collectively to change policy. State and local governments are
protecting tenants
who would otherwise be vulnerable to eviction because they are unable to pay rent. The U.S. government passed
a bill of unprecedented scope
that relieves immediate financial pressure for individuals – as well as corporations. Companies that have never provided sick leave for their employees are
providing sick leave
.
These policies, which treat people who are often not seen as people who matter, arise from a culture of civity. When we see people, including people who are very different from us, we take collective action to support and protect them.
Much of the work of Civity the organization is supporting local community leaders in being intentional about grounding their actions in
seeing
people who are different.
Seeing
leads to action, which leads to policy.
Historian Walter Scheidel asserts in his book
The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality
, that war and other violent upheavals – such as pandemics – are historically associated with significant shifts from inequality to greater equality.
In the current pandemic, we are experiencing the disruption of prevailing norms of inequality: We are
seeing
people who were previously invisible. And we are taking action, enacting policies of care and belonging.
The fundamental question facing any community or society is how its members are going to be
with each other
.
Our individual actions create a culture that responds to that question. The policies that emerge from that culture reflect that response.
Civity is taking root in the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic world.
Civity can also thrive in the U.S. post-COVID-19-pandemic world.
The choice is up to us.
