August 7-13, 2003

loose canon

Wanted: Bridge Builders

by Bruce Schimmel

If you know -- or are -- someone whose lifework strengthens democracy, I want to hear from you.

You may have noticed I’ve recently been using my column to interview people whose work supports this most central American ideal, which some say is fading.

The people I've spoken to all build bridges and their tools are as varied as the lives of those they serve.

Some use literacy to help us understand one another: like JoAnn Weinberger, who runs the nation's largest reading project; and Elliot Shelkrot, who is struggling to keep the libraries open to all.

Some use the arts to help people connect: Matthew Hart, whose organization, Spiral Q, mounts neighborhood pageants for and by the people; and Ellen Rosenholtz, who created a comic book to entice readers into the Rosenbach Museum.

Other bridge builders are technologists: Stanley Pokras, who started a computer thrift store; and Pete Tridish, who began his career as an illegal broadcaster and is now successfully convincing the FCC and Congress to open the airwaves to all.

Some are outright capitalists: Jeremy Nowak, who established a financial reinvestment fund to bring money to shore up communities at risk, for instance.

And there are those who deal in capital of the human sort: Hillary Aisenstein, who is breaching the ivory walls that separate universities from their communities; and Ed Schwartz, whose Institute for the Study of Civic Values crafts community goals that everyone believes in.

Each one of these people, each very differently, is trying to reconnect us to ourselves, based on the ideal that everyone matters, that everyone needs to be heard.

Democracy is a great principle to which leaders in industry and government give ample lip service.

Yet ironically, democracy is being shortchanged and short-circuited by the very institutions which, it is said, are meant to support democracy: media, political parties, even the government itself. It is being undermined by the narrow-minded, the xenophobic, the greedy and the spiritually bereft.

And tragically, democracy is also being dismissed by educated and fair-minded people who see the huge chasm between themselves and the people not like them and who shake their heads in dismay.

But listen to those who share a wider vision of the American landscape and you'll see a lusher and lovelier place in which to live.

If you know of such a visionary, if you are one, please share those dreams with us via e-mail.