The Sisters: An introduction – A Nation Worth Having

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During my life, I have met and been inspired by many people I would describe as heroes. While they were often different from each other, they all lived by deeply held values.

As I begin this blog, I can think of no more appropriate place to start than the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a congregation of Catholic nuns.

I got to know them well in the mid-1990’s when I helped them on various funding projects. In 1999, I was honored to be invited to write a short book marking the 150th anniversary of their arrival in New England in 1999.

Through face-to-face interviews and research, I came to more deeply appreciate the faith-based values upon which this congregation of teachers built their lives…equality, justice and charity.

I hope the stories I begin posting today reflect those values with a relevance to today’s world.

About this blog

Before the 2016 Clinton-Trump Presidential election, the most important election in my lifetime was the 2002 Georgia Senatorial election. It set the path for our decaying politics. It assaulted the values that had truly made and kept America great. It set a pattern for today.

In that election, Senator Max Cleland was challenged by Saxby Chambliss. Chambliss was far behind as election day came close. He had nothing to lose and did something that in the past would have been attacked as despicable and, indeed, contrary to American values. He attacked Senator Cleland as weak on defense. The tool he used was a Cleland vote on amending the Chemical Weapons Treaty. That amendment passed 56-44 with Cleland being on the same side as Senator Bill Frist, then head of the Senate committee that picked Chambliss to run against Cleland. Chambliss accused Cleland of “breaking his oath to protect and defend the Constitution”.

Well, we’re used to politicians twisting the truth, so why was this a step toward changing American values?

Max Cleland was a former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. At the age of 25, while in Viet Nam as a Captain in the U.S. Army, Max Cleland lost both his legs and one arm in service to his nation. To attack such a man as anything other than a patriot would have been unthinkable before that 2002 election.

Chambliss reversed the polls, won the election and changed our politics to this day. Others saw what he had done and learned. The new formula was simple and profoundly cynical: find a strength in your opponent and transform it to a weakness.

The formula has been repeated over and over ever since. Most recently, we have seen it in our 2016 election where a candidate who served (with good popularity) as Senator and Secretary of State has been subjected to years of Congressional hearings, as she emerged as a strong candidate for President.

The evolving result has been a loss of common national values.

The Republican and Democratic tribes do not do the business of the nation. They do not pass budgets. They do not stand unified at the water’s edge against nations that would do us harm. They focus on partisan interest and the destruction of each other.

When they fail, they do not apologize and seriously commit to work to the common good. They say citizens want them to be stronger in pushing their philosophies. They claim mandate, rather than the reality that citizens are limited by the rules they have set to a binary choice.

In truth, their philosophies are meaningless to most Americans. They are too often used to generate anger with ideas as a tagline.

Citizens simply want America to work…to bring us jobs and stability. We want people who will talk to each other, listen and find – or create – common ground. That is leadership in a democracy – if we want to keep it.

This introduction is to a new blog dedicated to values. It is about people who put themselves second to others. It is about a future worth having. It will include stories about heroes I and others have met or observed, a little history and, perhaps, a few thoughts

Welcome to A Nation Worth Having: A blog about binding values.

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