It is through states that the American people get the job done every day, often in spite of a deeply flawed bureaucratic federal government.
I think a lot of things could be handled locally.
Developing compassion for Congress and politicians is a good way to begin practicing the new social activism if you want to make effective changes in the world. Perhaps the most startling new insight of all is that there is no other way to effectively change the world.
We need a president willing to embrace the idea that Washington is not the answer to all, or even most, of our problems, regardless of who is in charge.
Our nation has endured and flourished because people of goodwill adapt and innovate productive solutions to our nation's problems - not because of top-down dictates.
We've really got to stop looking to Washington to fix our problems. It obviously doesn't have the ability to do that. People who are successful are not successful because of the president.
The best way you make policy in Washington is by doing it yourself.
Collective decisions about health care and education are best answered on a local level.
You can't reorder any society from outside. You can help from within.
Trust the people. They’ll get it right. They always do.
Some of the United States' enemies now assume, perhaps rightly, that we hate each other so much that we'd sooner collaborate with them than do the difficult work of listening to each other. It doesn't need to be this way - but national recovery won't come from Washington. It has to start with you.
The real opportunity is to harness the inventive power of the world to locally design and produce solutions to local problems.
Primarily, we need to change 100 years of thinking, where we try to extend the promise of American life by moving things to Washington, and let's move it the other way: less of Washington, more from ourselves.
A lot of the things that will really improve the world fortunately aren't dependent on Washington doing something different.
It's my goal to show the world that Americans know how to help Americans without expecting the government to come riding in on a white horse and save the day.
I think the truth of it is that when you get down to actually having to do the things on the ground, there is only one way to do it, and that's in cooperation with the communities.
If the world is to be put together it will not be done by large organizations. It will be done by millions of small organizations…. Participation: That’s what is going to save the human race.
The people who really run organizations are usually found several levels down, where it is still possible to get things done.
In India, nothing is accomplished by policy changes alone. Unless people can relate emotionally to something, nothing happens on the ground.
By and large we have got to find the good leaders to work with to make sure that we build the strength in these communities. Simply issuing edicts from Canberra isn't going to solve issues on the APY lands.
I really believe in the power of social control coming from within the community itself. The community protecting itself, its children, its teenagers, you know? I think that's far more effective than a police presence.
