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A program from this summer's Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado: "Healing America through a year of service." 

Could a year of service — be it military, civilian, or public service — bring people together, bridge divides, and provide a common experience?

Moderator Elliot Gerson of the Aspen Institute says many people want to know what we can do to bring the country together. He suggests that we “provide some sort of common experience, across zip codes, across ethnicities, across race, across socioeconomic status and opportunity.”

If we make service a common expectation and opportunity for all young Americans, Michael Gerson said, “it not only builds bridges, it builds citizens … We’ve got a time where disagreement has turned into contempt, and that is a very dangerous moment for the country.”

We need to realize, Gerson said, “that people who disagree with us are human. I’m skeptical that any single issue is going to bring us together, like a single cable. So I think we’re going to have to cultivate millions of ties of friendship and common purpose in this country. And I think service is one of the ways to accomplish that. “

During World War II, Elliot Gerson said, people had to work with and understand people who were different from themselves. “I think it’s no accident that the period after the war was as successful as it was socially and politically as it was.” 

The Aspen Institute launched something called The Franklin Project, which has since evolved and merged to become part of Service Year Alliance. 

Emily Cherniack said before she participated in City Year, “I didn’t feel like I had a purpose, or a connection to my country. … In City Year, I was able to learn about a mission greater than myself.”

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Could a year of service — be it military, civilian, or public service — bring people together, bridge divides, and provide a common experience,  so we can work with and understand people who are different from ourselves?

Could a year of service -- be it military, civilian, or public service -- bring people together, bridge divides, and provide a common experience,  so we can work with and understand people who are different from ourselves?

Aspen Ideas Festival: Healing America through a year of service

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