Nearly 350 million of us belong to this idea that became the United States of America, and our freedom to imagine is the life force that has always invigorated and expanded it into the future. American thinkers and writers, inventors and builders, academics and archivists, musicians and directors, stewards and cultivators, painters and playwrights, photographers and poets and librarians, artists and actors, sculptors and dancers and singers: For 250 years, all have imagined new and unknown dimensions of the great American experiment and unearthed others either under-told or hidden from the more common narratives we tell about who we are.
In doing so, these creative people reveal the many paths forward for American democracy: new ones lit by our tremendously diverse ingenuity, and older ones representing our abundantly varied and sometimes contradictory history. This is our cultural might as the American people, and we can use it to build a better future. In doing so, we celebrate our extraordinary heritage, unique in the history of the world, that can serve as a guiding light for the next 250 years of democracy.
“ Creative people reveal the many paths forward for American democracy: new ones lit by our tremendously diverse ingenuity, and older ones representing our abundantly varied and sometimes contradictory history. This is our cultural might as the American people, and we can use it to build a better future.”
Elizabeth Alexander
Additional For The People Voices
Jennifer Ching
Jennifer Ching, executive director of North Star Fund, reflects on the power of daily, local-level advocacy. By addressing community-specific concerns and our shared future, she argues that democracy locally can inspire people to pursue change at a mass scale.
Sarita Gupta
Sarita Gupta, Ford’s vice president of U.S. Programs, reflects on how economic inequality erodes American democracy, and calls for building a fairer economy that centers and broadens workers’ rights.
Troy Jackson
Troy Jackson, co-founder and executive director of UNDIVIDED, calls for the Church to unite across racial and political divisions. By doing so, the Church can strengthen democracy and become a powerful force for hope, justice, and dignity.
Noorain Khan
Noorain Khan, Ford’s chief innovation officer, shares that a healthy democracy requires a thriving civil society, which depends on resilient nonprofit organizations. These groups are essential for collective action, enabling people to pursue shared causes and amplify individual power.
Rickke Mananzala
Rickke Mananzala, president of the New York Foundation, advocates for hyperlocal democracy, urging philanthropy to ensure public systems serve the common good and empower citizens to shape our future.
Roy Swan
Roy Swan, Ford’s Mission Investments program director, calls for “patriotic capitalism”: investments that prioritize the common good, widen opportunity, and expand worker ownership.
