Our hope for the future is not found in our current politics. We are paralyzingly encumbered by a politics of division and polarization. We must do better. Our republic needs a politics of harmonization and unity if we have any hope to deal with the astonishing challenges that await us.

As the world’s oldest democracy with the most powerful economy and military, the future will bring great urgency for America to make its system of representative democracy work as it should. To imagine a 21st century Democratic Party is to imagine a 21st Century desperately in need of leaders of extraordinary character and wisdom.  The 21st century needs a Democratic Party that will be a large and representative community of Democrats acting as a deliberative democracy. It is in such a Democratic community where leaders of extraordinary character and wisdom can emerge.

We need a 21st Century Democratic Party built on this mission: To prepare and to elect leaders who are of the people and who demonstrate exceptional leadership skills and civic virtue. 

1. Such leaders emerge from a bottom-up, grassroots process, rather than a top-down hierarchical process.
2. They are known by their connection and service to meaningful broad-based communities and by their capacity to deal with conflicting points of view to find an avenue for consensus.

I like the TV ads for “Buddy” the carpet salesman who declares, “We don’t want to make money, we just love to sell carpet.” The 21st Century Democratic Party we need is one that can say, “We just love to make the system of representative democracy work as it is suppose to work.” By focusing on making the system work as it should, Democrats will be elected in droves.

Each of Ohio’s 88 counties has an independent Democratic Party organization structured according to a locally developed and locally approved constitution. The first step to imagining a 21st century Democratic Party, with a mission as stated above, is to envision a Democratic Party in Montgomery County where that mission is a reality.

I had the pleasant experience this morning to meet Nuponu Gorneleh who is seeking election to  the office of Mayor of Kettering, and Griffin Derr, who is seeking election to the Kettering City Council. I am impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment of these two twenty-five year olds. I enjoyed their sense of humor.

Nuponu Gorneleh and Griffin Derr explaining their campaign to be elected to public office in Kettering

Nuponu and Griffin have both lived in Kettering their whole lives and both graduated from Kettering High School. They say there is a tale of two Ketterings. In one there is the best of times and in the other, not so good. They want to help make a local government that serves the interests of both Ketterings and that cares for both Ketterings.

Nuponu and Griffin are in general agreement with each other.

Nuponu and Griffin think that too many Kettering citizens — including millennials like themselves — feel they have no voice in the decisions of the community. They feel left out. These young men say they are seeking public office in Kettering because they want to live in a Kettering where more citizens can have a direct say in local government, where more citizens have a direct say in how the local government spends money. One idea they are kicking around is the notion of a citizen forum. To gain more public support, I am urging them to write a specific plan — that as elected officials they would advance — that would work to give more citizens a direct say in local government.

It’s great to see young people who are making an effort to make a difference: Nuponu Gorneleh and Griffin Derr

I enjoyed talking with Nuponu and Griffin and I’m thinking of throwing the weight of a DaytonOS endorsement behind their candidacies. They would bring a new point of view in the discussion of the Kettering City Council. I think they would be a positive influence.

“Heaven” by Randy Alcorn is a thought provoking book that challenges the reader to imagine what heaven means, what heaven is like. I’m just starting the book, but Alcorn’s emphasis, so far, is on describing heaven as a specific physical place. That makes me feel uneasy. The key question, I believe, is not what heaven will be like, but what we will be like in heaven.

Heaven is all about joy. When we experience joy in this present life — heaven on earth — we experience something beyond our selves. Heaven is when we not only feel compassion, but when for a moment we are compassion, when we not only feel love, we are love. Heaven is the moment when the mind that was in Christ Jesus is also our mind, when the heart of Christ is also our heart. In heaven, we will be the beings we were created to be, our true selves, sons and daughters of God.

Grieving over the tragic death of his four year old son, Eric Clapton composed his beautiful song “Tears in Heaven.” He wrote: “Beyond the door there’s peace I’m sure, And I know there’ll be no more tears in heaven.”

And he asked a good question:

Would you know my name

If I saw you in heaven?

Would it be the same

If I saw you in heaven?

If we transcend our tiny egos to become as Christ — if we are love, if we are compassion — will we be recognizable in heaven? The question to ponder, I think, is not what heaven will be like, but what is our highest selves?  What we will be like in heaven?