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 By Stephen Reno In the wake of the November election, too often have I heard the call “to circle the wagons.” It’s a phrase deep in our American folklore and has come to represent a measure to be safe and secure. But the lessons of these past few weeks are that we need to do just the opposite; rather we need to engage in respectful conversation across difference but based in our common love for our country. Global Citizens Circle, now in its 50th year, has been doing just that, and so offers us all a model for how to do it and what it can lead to. And what it also offers — so desperately needed these days — is intergenerational conversation. As Pope Frances noted, “The elderly with their history are the roots and the young are the flowers and fruits.” Together we grow, recognizing difference, but also know our shared roots. Our country and our world so urgently need this approach. I am grateful for Global Citizens Circle and urge us all to ensure that its mission is an active verb. We hope you’ll register for our next Circle on Monday, December 2, from noon to 1pm. Historian and author Timothy Ryback, whose books and articles offer lessons for democracy, joins us for an important post-election circle event as we join in conversation to consider how to constructively move forward given the polarization of American citizenry. What lesson can we learn from others who’ve navigated similar polarization and found ways to work together for common good? You may register here. Stephen Reno is a retired professor of comparative religion, university administrator, and most recently, the former executive director of Leadership New Hampshire, a 30-year-old organization whose mission is “Building a community of informed and engaged leaders.” He lives in Hampton, New Hampshire, and serves on the advisory board of Global Citizens Circle. Please note: Each week, we invite members of the greater Global Citizens Circle community to contribute to GCC Voices. The views and opinions expressed in each blog post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Global Citizens Circle. We need to engage in respectful conversation across difference but based in our common love for our country.
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At a Boston Circle in May 2019, Jada Hebra led a panel discussion, “Building Movements for Change: Stories of Challenge and Success,” featuring activists Dolores Huerta, Lauren Hogg, and Ramla Sahid. Conversation that evening spoke to societal challenges, division and how each of us can make a difference to create, foster, and impact change.
Hebra, a senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer at Southern New Hampshire University, is adept in her navigation of complex discussion and scenarios, drawing upon the tools of her work and experience to find the humanity in everyone. Yet, in 2016, she too stumbled in the political crevasse that so many found themselves in – but for Hebra, this time it became deeply personal. In her compelling 2023 TEDx Talk, Hebra shares how a work conversation allowed her to open her eyes and find her way forward across a seemingly insurmountable divide – and how we can as well. And in the spirit of Global Citizens Circle, why it matters that we do. If you care about the people in your life who hold a different world view, if you care about this country, then I invite you to the climb – to lay down a ladder and make your way across the crevasse, to dare to try to reach that seemingly unreachable summit ... to have hope. Trust me when I tell you, we can save this relationship. We are so much better together.
Please note: Each week, we invite members of the greater Global Citizens Circle community to contribute to GCC Voices. The views and opinions expressed in each blog post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Global Citizens Circle.
 By Phoebe de Larrabeiti I. “The power is in your person.” – Dolores Huerta, 2019 GCC discussion leader 1982, Oxfordshire, England It’s the evening. I lean up against my mum’s legs in our kitchen. I should probably be in bed but something is happening. I can feel it. The kitchen is full of people packing food, talking feverishly; nukes, Reagan, Thatcher. I don’t understand everything but I know I can help. Loading food into our battered old Lada (a Russian car bought to piss off our neighbors). These friends, this community of outliers and intellectuals are making meals for the Women of Greenham Common. This was a women’s only peace camp, protesting NATO's decision to site U.S. cruise missiles (guided nuclear missiles) in the U.K. These courageous women had formed a human barricade at the local military airfield base. Often brutally evicted, sometimes imprisoned, they would only return more defiant. My mum and her friends were keeping them fed. I understood then that the U.S. was a powerful nation. Housing their nuclear weapons on U.K. soil crossed a line my community chose to resist. Their resistance seeped under my skin and left its mark. II. “Speak truth to power.” – Kerry Kennedy, 2023 GCC discussion leader March 2003, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport “What do y’all think about the war?” exclaimed the small woman with the big hair guiding us on to the airport shuttle bus. “Where am I?” I thought, already disconcerted from the long haul flight and being held by immigration officers over an anomaly with my student visa. In the past month my world had turned upside down; my mum died suddenly and a trans-Atlantic move destined for New England had brought us instead to Texas. What I could never have anticipated was that our arrival date would coincide exactly with the invasion of Iraq by U.S. and U.K. forces. The Marriott hotel, our first ‘home,' was filled with reserve troops. Images of Blair, Bush and Saddam Hussein played endlessly on the barroom tv. I thought only of the mass mobilization of those against the invasion, the largest protest ever on U.K. soil in London just one month before. In every sense, I felt a million miles from home. There’s nothing like volunteering at a children’s hospital to ground you in a place, however lost you feel. Within a month I was working at the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in downtown Dallas, making friends, navigating cultural differences as best I could. Engaging my colleagues in conversations about politics, particularly the invasion of Iraq, elicited a reaction I had never witnessed before. The war had started now, and it was unpatriotic to question the motives of those in power. I was letting down the troops. Wasn’t it the opposite, I would counter. Doesn’t democracy demand that we hold those in power accountable? Now I felt the fire in my blood. III. “‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.’ Words my grandfather lived by.” – Yolanda Renee King, 2022 GCC discussion leader June 26, 2024. USCIS Offices, Bedford, NH If you had to complete the extensive N-400 application for naturalization you would be asked: Were you EVER a member of, or did you EVER serve in, help, or otherwise participate in, any of the following groups: an insurgent organization (a group that uses weapons and fights against a government)? For the American Democracy section of the civics test you will learn that the “rule of law” states no one is above the law; that our leaders must obey the law. Unless, of course. they start to re-write them. We were living in extraordinary times, the very fabric of what defined a nation and nationality was being undone. Perhaps it was seeing my bright, brilliant, resilient daughter cast her first vote last November that got me thinking. Was it time to become a U.S. citizen? Or maybe something in the air that smelled unsettlingly like authoritarianism propelled me to acknowledge we might not have much time. More than anything it was people, the people I have met here in this beautiful country, a country like most of us – steeped in contradictions. When I cast my vote in November, I might be helping to make history. Here’s hoping. Phoebe de Larrabeiti joined Global Citizens Circle (GCC) as its assistant director in February 2020, with a background in nonprofit management, event organizing and higher education liaison. She works concurrently as a licensed therapist with experience of group facilitation and a particular interest in trauma resolution. Doesn’t democracy demand that we hold those in power accountable? Please note: Each week, we invite members of the greater Global Citizens Circle community to contribute to GCC Voices. The views and opinions expressed in each blog post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Global Citizens Circle.
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