Business has much at stake in nation's deep divide

These days, renewing our democracy through invigorating the average U.S. citizens' commitment to participate constructively is on the agenda of many individuals, institutions and organizations, perhaps more than at any time since the 1960s-1970s era.

We are a divided nation. A Gallup survey in September found that 45 percent of those polled have confidence in the federal government to handle domestic problems while 54 percent had either not very much or no confidence. Regarding international problems, 52 percent of Americans weighed in with general confidence while 47 percent had not very much or no confidence in the federal government.

I checked a similar Gallup survey taken on international views from turbulent times — 1972 — when the ongoing Vietnam War had been waged for nearly a decade. Interestingly, three of four Americans had confidence in what we were doing while only 22 percent registered a no-confidence vote.

A great number of people today say that they are disenchanted with government in Washington, D.C., with Congress scoring an 88 percent negative vote and the presidency 42 percent favorable.

I was among nearly 300 people participating last month in a University of Minnesota symposium on "Civic Renewal." Only three or four hands were raised when I asked members of the audience if they were from a primarily for-profit business sector background.

The vast majority of presenters and participants were from nonprofit advocacy groups, academic institutions, organized labor and state and local government.

Many individual business people and trade groups had been invited to send representatives of their staff or membership to the symposium, according to organizers.

Business does have a huge stake in the civic conduct of Minnesota, representing over 85 percent — or 2.5 million — of our state's jobs. Average annual pay of Minnesota workers consistently ranks in the top 10; our 3.7 unemployment rate is below the national average. Despite all this, Minnesota has a looming workforce shortage that needs to be addressed.

Minnesota lists 33 major employers among the nation's top 1,000 publicly traded companies. In a previous Gallup study on public support of institutions, seven in 10 expressed confidence in the integrity of small business, big business scored much lower at 21 percent and unions at 28 percent.

There is not yet agreement on what civic engagement is all about. But the symposium's speakers shared many personal examples along the theme of how groups and individuals in conflict could find workable solutions together, especially in dealing with immigration, gender and race issues.

Symposium organizers brought in an expert to help sort things out.

Danielle Allen, of Harvard's Sofra Center for Ethics, was part of a wide-ranging concluding session.

Allen had been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship 15 years ago for her "ability to combine the classicist's careful attention to texts and language with the political theorist's sophisticated and informed engagement." She has written or co-written five books.

Allen emphasized the use of language that would lend itself to closing the gaps and defining common ground between people.

As part of this exercise, Allen carefully recited the full text of America's Declaration of Independence, reminding all of us that this nation "holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

In addition, Allen advocated a kind of civilized grass-roots involvement combined with reforms to make our nation more representative, building on the hard reality of two political parties at work in a nation that she says is "as conflicted as at any time since the Civil War."

There's likely more to come from Allen. She's currently working on projects refining citizenship in the digital age, political equality and the Democratic Knowledge Project, a group of research studies that will doubtless shed light on using knowledge to guide our democracy into the future.

All in all, the symposium turned out to be sort of a "Houston, we've got a problem" kind of civic call to action. While not a fully defined cause, business has much at stake as we move ahead together to build our nation and world.

It is wise for us to be reminded of Abraham Lincoln when he said in 1861 in his first presidential inaugural address to a divided America: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Chuck Slocum is president of the Williston Group, a management consulting firm; a former executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership, he is currently on the U's oversight board for the multiyear "Civic Renewal" project. E-mail: Chuck@WillistonGroup.Com.