In the midst of a contentious presidential election year and increasing acts of violence against innocent citizens at home and abroad, divisions in our country run deep and will run even deeper in the days ahead. Political polarization has reached new heights and political discourse has reached new lows.
We are living through a defining moment in history. We all will be put to the test as citizens.
Regardless of our political views and which elected officials and political candidates we support or oppose, we should hold all those who aspire to lead us to the same standards — calling out and condemning hate with moral clarity, engaging in civil discourse, defending and promoting democracy, respecting facts and the rule of law, telling the truth and being kind and respectful to each other.
Those are not liberal or conservative values. Those are not the values of a political party. They are the values of the nation upon which we were founded as we endeavor to be a more perfect union.
But it’s not just about those we elect or those who promote violence and hate. It’s about us. What are our personal guiding values? What values do we want to teach our children? What are the values of the nation to which we pledge allegiance?
My friend and college classmate Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in his recent book, The Bill of Obligations, argues that while the Bill of Rights is at the center of our Constitution, we should also have a bill of obligations to which good citizens commit in order to heal our divisions and to safeguard democracy. Those obligations include the obligation to stay open to compromise, to remain civil, to reject violence and to put country and democracy before party and person.
Fidelity to democracy and rule of law does not mean that our founding fathers were always right or that law is always just. We all have work to do in making our country better. We are a work in progress. But when our nation has achieved anything of consequence, it has done so most often through civil debate, mutual respect and measured compromise. We are at our best when we are showing humility, listening to other views, respectfully debating differences and building consensus.
Yet, in partisan or economic self-interest, too many will close their eyes, suspend their values and rationalize hate, incivility and violence as necessary and acceptable means to an end.
Today, amidst the algorithms of social media and partisan opinion outlets masquerading as news stations, everything we perceive has a way of confirming whatever we believe. If we are to fulfill our obligations as citizens, we must stop seeing what we want to see and hearing what we want to hear. We must stop anchoring our opinions and huddling in our own ideological echo chambers.
As our nation becomes more diverse, we can find the shared values and common ground that make us all human and connected, or, by our silence, rationalization and inaction, we can allow partisans, demagogues and haters to exploit our differences to divide and separate us.
The alarming nationwide rise in gun violence and hateful acts and threats against Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students on college campuses and elsewhere is unacceptable. We must condemn acts of antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism in the same breath and with equal fervor. Hate-based discrimination has no place in our country.
My wife, Peggy Zone Fisher, recently announced her upcoming retirement after 18 years of service as president/CEO of the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio. She has taught me and countless others that we are at our best when we speak out, not when we ourselves are attacked, but when our brothers and sisters are attacked. We must view every insult or attack on someone because of the color of their skin, the country where they or their ancestors were born, who they worship or who they love, as an offense against all of us and the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country.
When we establish a strong foundation of trust as citizens, we can withstand those sinister forces trying to tear us apart.
That’s why I tell our law students to think of themselves as more than aspiring lawyers. I ask them to think of themselves as future custodians of civility, defenders of democracy and guardians of justice.
