“Democratic Space” (excerpted from The Introduction)
It was Martin Luther King Jr. who, in 1963, spoke to “the fierce urgency of now.” Now more than then, we need to heed his grandiloquent call “to make real the promises of democracy” in this nation and beyond. Like my predecessors, we need to create communities of discourse and practice that acknowledge our real and distinct differences and yet seek ways to adapt and, if possible, run together and embrace our differences for the urgent moment at hand. This is possible because our religious and social constructions of reality are always contextual and constructive. We must, therefore, be vigilant, flexible, and adaptive—we must “wake up running.”
Ideally, democratic space, whether by divine creation, natural law, or the authority of reason, is the authentically human association where everyone is equal, with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But we are all aware…