THE VISION

When President Harry Truman was headed home to Missouri after finishing his term in the White House, a reporter asked him what it was like to be leaving the highest office in the land. Without missing a beat, Truman replied: “I am not leaving the highest office. I am assuming the highest office, that of citizen.”

The vision for Be the Change, Inc. is an America in which every citizen aspires to that highest office, by working shoulder to shoulder with one another, by actively participating in the conversations, debates and elections which set public policy, by taking responsibility for the democracy we all share. If each of us can achieve this, if each of us can fully assume the highest office of citizen and devote ourselves to the idea of a common interest and a common destiny, then perhaps as a nation we can move past bitter partisan gridlock and the sense that ordinary citizens have no real voice in our democracy. And if we can do that we can begin the important work of addressing together our greatest challenges as a nation.

We can’t wait for it. If we want change, we must be the change. Accordingly, Be the Change, Inc. will have three core missions:

• Crafting a bold and innovative policy agenda that is rooted in the practical experience of social entrepreneurs and civic leaders and sets a pragmatic, ten-year time horizon for major systemic change
  
  
• Building a broad-based, web-fueled, citizens’ movement that will campaign for better public policies, promote active citizenship and citizen democracy, and give Americans who are frustrated with the status quo a place to channel their ideas and activism
  
  
• Partnering with and investing seed money in advocacy groups that share our ideals, are building their own membership, and can help us build coalitions to support an agenda for change