America is in crisis, and it cannot all be pinned on an oligarchic administration determined to create chaos. With their votes, just over half of the electorate demonstrated dissatisfaction with the economic status quo and the deep yearning for a new and different reality. We have reached the end of our imagination about what an economy that works for everyone looks like, and instead we fight over the price of eggs. We, the people, are looking for a new American dream, and advancing community development is a significant aspect of this.

Unfortunately, this new vision will not, as we will continue to see, be provided by any candidate from either party, despite promises and campaign slogans. Advancing community development and building an economy that works for every single American, regardless of where we come from or where we live, can only be designed and controlled by the entire whole of those who use it.

It will take an incredible amount of collective imagination to create and transition into this new kind of economy – one where each of us, not just a select few, can thrive and prosper. Every significant change movement in the world has required a brutal acknowledgement and understanding of the current reality and an unwavering commitment to a prophetic imagination. In the words of bell hooks, “To be truly visionary we have to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality.”

It is not the erudition of economics that we lack, but instead the kind of imagination that not only demonstrates what is possible but demands it. It is quite possible that because we are in our current situation as a country, we will be thrust into a deeper imagining of a future where our economy works for all of us, not just the increasingly smaller and smaller percentage of those who control larger and larger amounts of wealth and power. The question for this generation will be – can we not only imagine this future, but also work together to make that dream a reality?

Read the full article about community development by Sarah Carter at Living Cities.