We are living in a time of tremendous injustice. The majority of people in the U.S. (and the world) lack the basic securities necessary for psychological and material well-being. All the while, a tiny minority of people have amassed huge piles of money. This gap between rich and poor demonstrates an absence of societal recognition for shared prosperity - a goal we at hivethrive advocate strongly toward.

How do we solve this problem? Is it sufficient to elect leaders to represent us and craft public policies on our behalf? Or is there a more active role we should play?

I am inspired by the approach Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has recently taken. He sent a request out to his email list for his constituents to tell him how they are doing economically. Here is how he describes the response he received:

Dear Friend,

As gas and oil prices soared and as the nation slipped into recession, I made a request to Vermonters on my e-mail list. I asked them to tell me what was going on in their lives economically. That was it. Frankly, I expected a few dozen replies. I was amazed, therefore, when my office received over 600 responses from all across the state, as well as some from other states. This small booklet contains a few of those letters.

It is one thing to read dry economic statistics which describe the collapse of the American middle class. It is another thing to understand, in flesh and blood terms, what that means in the lives of ordinary Americans. Yes, since George W. Bush has been in office 5 million Americans have slipped into poverty, 8 million have lost their health insurance and 3 million have lost their pensions. Yes, in the last seven years median household income for working-age Americans has declined by $2,500. Yes, our country, for the first time since the Great Depression, now has a zero personal savings rate and, all across the nation, emergency food shelves are being flooded with working families whose inadequate wages prevent them from feeding their families.

Statistics are one thing, however, and real life is another. The responses that I received describe the decline of the American middle class from the perspective of those people who are living that decline. They speak about families who, not long ago, thought they were economically secure, but now find themselves sinking into desperation and hopelessness.

These e-mails tell the stories of working families unable to keep their homes warm in the winter; workers worried about whether they’ll be able to fill their gas tank to get to their jobs; and seniors, who spent their entire lives working, now wondering how they’ll survive in old age. They describe the pain and disappointments that parents feel as they are unable to save money for their kids’ college education, and the dread of people who live without health insurance.

In order to try and break through the complacency and isolation inside the Washington Beltway, I have read some of these stories on the floor of the Senate. It is imperative that Congress and the corporate media understand the painful reality facing the middle class today so that we can develop the appropriate public policy to address this crisis.

Let me conclude by thanking all of those people who have so kindly shared their lives with me through these letters. I know that for many of you this was not an easy thing to do.

The booklet he created is published on his website. You can download it here as a PDF. I would like to focus on a potential lesson we can all learn from this activity.

When society enters a state of crisis, such as the economic situation we find ourselves in today in the United States, there is an opportunity to call upon the people to come together and build new foundations to place the community on more solid ground. The simple act of Senator Sanders - to ask for the sharing of stories - makes real the connection we all share. When so many are suffering in similar ways, it becomes clear that we cannot truly be on our own.

If it is possible to bring together the suffering of others, is it not also possible to bring together our wisdom? What might happen if Sanders followed up with a request for local solutions to the problems people face? The working presumption of elite democracy (as contrasted with popular democracy) is that the masses are a rowdy and unruly bunch - not the place one looks for solutions. What if this presumption is wrong?

In my experience, people are generally pretty clever at finding solutions when they feel empowered to do so. The source of their empowerment is often a support group that provides resources, wisdom from past experience, and helping hands when it is time to get the work going. This coming together is a precursor of collective decision-making. It is the starting point of responsible governance. And it is a place of opportunity where crisis brings about new possibilities.

I’d like to see the democratic process applied to building solutions. What an experiment it could be.

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