The real challenge is to discover and create the means for engaging citizens that brings a new possibility into being. To state it more precisely, what gives power to communal possibility is the imagination and authorship of citizens led through a process of engagement. This is an organic and relational process. This is what creates a structure of

The context of retribution itself is actually an ongoing argument against accountability. This happens each time I want to see a change in “those people.” Those people can be supervisors, top management, the mayor, immigrants, people living in poverty—the list is endless. When I develop prescriptions for “their” transformation, I am making them the

There is truth to this view. It is not just cynicism; it is pretty accurate observation. What restores community is to believe that we play a role in constructing this condition. It is not in the nature of people to be apathetic, entitled, complainers.

Innocence and indifference are subtle denials of ownership. The future is denied with the response, “It doesn’t matter to me—whatever you want to do is fine.” This is always a lie and just a polite way of avoiding a difficult conversation around ownership.

Icebreakers will achieve contact, but not connection. Connection occurs when we speak of what matters about this moment.

To shift to some other context, we need to detach ourselves from the discussions of problems. One way to achieve this detachment is to see that what we now call problems are simply symptoms of something deeper.

What is your contribution to the very thing you complain about?

Questions are the essential tools of engagement. They are the means by which we are all confronted with our freedom.

The willingness to own up to the fictional nature of our story is where the healing begins. And where the possibility of restoration resides.