Our January 2024 President’s Letter opened with an image of a red flag flying in the wind, a warning that “we are in danger.” We declared a commitment to increase the effectiveness of our network of projects to focus more attentively on the interlocking crises that endanger our democracy. Now, a year later, I can report that is precisely what we are doing here at Mediators Foundation.

For years, as an author and facilitator, I advised the communities I worked in to stop playing Washington’s Red-Blue national, political game and design their own technicolor local, civic way of leading. Whether in Michigan or Arizona, my message was the same: Make your state great; don’t let DC divide you! Never has that message resonated the way it does today. Americans across the country have realized that they need to face the challenges in their community head on — not wait for politicians in D.C.