Opinion: Should life reward all of us?

“In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in doing good to their fellow men.”

– Cicero

It’s likely true that when we do good things for each other the heavens smile down on us. Doing good is the foundation and strength of every community. Whether good occurs through simple acts of neighborliness or complex legislative reforms, communities grow and people thrive. Through community, or when people “come into unity,” human conscience powerfully asserts itself to advance more goodness, happiness, and wellbeing.

As centerpieces for an ever-expanding global economy, prosperous cities–and especially their leaders–must balance the needs of the people with the conflicting wants of a bourgeoning elite of developers in their drive toward more growth. Though their goal to increase prosperity may be mutual, each group’s vision of prosperity is distinct and often worlds apart.

Prosperity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. The public’s vision to mitigate homelessness, for instance, just won’t square with the developer’s vision to further gentrify. Imagine, however, if cities framed their vision for a more prosperous future on the ideals of the American dream.

In 1931, when James Truslow Adams first gave voice to its notion in his best seller “Epic of America,” he envisioned America’s potential as “a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone,” a vision that echoes our nation’s Declaration of Independence, endowing each of us with God-given inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

History tells us that a city without noble ideals is like a galaxy without its sun. When a community’s growth relies solely on the exploitation of land and cheap labor, a rudderless population will emerge with all the bitter thorns of blight and social division. On the other hand, growth that springs from the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all, will more quickly create a thriving economy, as well as promote a social order where equality, unity, and tranquility become tangible outcomes.

Making America great again must be more than a slogan. It must be more than a nine billion dollar spend on electoral attack ads that further divide us. What we need in place of the smackdowns and vitriol is a return to the belief that if you live and work in America, you are deserving of living the dream.

Along with that belief, we need to believe in the profound goodness and power of we the people—a force that can coalesce around the dream, push for it, rally for it, march for it, and insist on it, because without it we are divisible.

If we agree that life can and should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, we should all pour our heart and soul into making it so. Only then will we begin to repair a torn social fabric stemming from “preferred” populations and communities being elevated, valued, and rewarded over others. Doing nothing guarantees prosperity will continue to wither for the vast unchosen majority of Americans, leaving more victims on the streets and destroying more communities.

Building bridges back to each other and raising each other up is not only within our power, it is the most urgent civic duty we can all undertake today. If we jointly erect new foundational pillars that bind communities to the American dream of equality and justice for all, we’ll be carried across our current social, economic, and political divides, strengthening our humanity as we go.

Elisa Charouhas, Youtropolis Co-founder