One national cable and internet provider launched an advertising campaign encouraging small business owners to sign up for its services by using the theme “bounce forward.” The company makes the case that through the pandemic, civil unrest, political strife and economic upheaval entrepreneurs cannot be content to simply strive to “bounce back.” The ad claims the business people who are the backbone of America’s economy really must begin to “bounce forward.”
That is some pretty sage advice.
Too many citizens, organizations, groups and governments are attempting to go back to what was rather than bouncing forward toward what comes next. America’s future will not be put together by picking up the pieces of the past. A brighter tomorrow will emerge from the ashes of current setbacks when we all strive to bounce forward and make things better.
In July of 2019, I found myself in Detroit observing the NAACP national convention. The organization had chosen Detroit as part of an effort to help the city rebound. Also unique to the event that year was the invitation for Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to address the gathering. That was a bounce forward moment.
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In between interviews, a colleague and I wander around the massive convention center. Tucked away in a remote corner of the cavernous building was a ceramic tile mural honoring Father Gabriel Richard. This extraordinary minister came to America from France and was assigned to labor in Detroit. He served all the people in the area. In fact, because there were no Protestant priests in the local vicinity, he served the spiritual needs of both Catholics and Protestants.
Father Richard planned on being in Detroit only for a short while as he desired to return to France and teach in a seminary. But when a devastating fire in 1805 wiped out the entire settlement of Detroit, he decided to stay and help the community bounce forward. Father Richard began that process by establishing the city’s motto: “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes” (Latin: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus).
Bounce forward the city did. Father Richard brought the first printing press and started the first newspaper. He led educational efforts, including co-founding the University of Michigan. He was the first Catholic priest to be elected to the United States Congress in 1823. He worked to integrate Native Americans into the community and educational system, brought the first organ and harpsichord to the area and encouraged all to be united in building their city and community.
During the War of 1812, Father Richard faced another significant setback as he was imprisoned by the British for refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to the British Crown. From prison he wrote, “I have taken one oath to support the Constitution of the United States and I cannot take another.” Father Richard bounced forward and was released after his friend, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, refused to help the British while Richard was in prison. Genuine friendship always helps you bounce forward.
In 1832 after sacrificing and serving those with cholera during a vicious pandemic, Father Gabriel Richard died of the disease.
I was drawn to the mural multiple times during my several days at the convention center in Detroit. An obscure priest, in what was then an obscure community in America, had set a pattern of bouncing forward.
Nearly one year following the 2019 NAACP convention, President Nelson joined forces with NAACP President Derrick Johnson, Chairman Leon Russell and the Rev. Amos Brown to write an op-ed in the midst of racial injustice, societal setbacks and community strife. Together, they called on the people of the world to turn from prejudice and hate, transcend racial discrimination and contempt and bounce forward toward understanding, peace and bold efforts to build a better society.
These leaders wrote: “Unitedly we declare that the answers to racism, prejudice, discrimination and hate will not come from government or law enforcement alone. Solutions will come as we open our hearts to those whose lives are different than our own, as we work to build bonds of genuine friendship, and as we see each other as the brothers and sisters we are — for we are all children of a loving God.”
Continuing, this unique and somewhat unexpected quartet of friends implored, “It is past time for every one of us to elevate our conversations above divisive and polarizing rhetoric. Treating others with respect matters. Treating each other as sons and daughters of God matters.”
Finally, in the spirit of Father Richard, these leaders gave the ultimate bounce forward model.
“Arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder, may we strive to lift our brothers and sisters everywhere, in every way we can. We first linked arms as friends and have now locked arms in love and brotherhood. The people of America can do the same.”
Linking and locking arms, in the midst of challenges, setbacks and difficulties is indeed a powerful, principled pattern for bouncing forward.
Gen. George Patton purportedly said, “The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”
Many of America’s cities, including Detroit, are struggling. Communities have been pushed to the brink. Families are faltering under enormous economic and emotional stress. Weary citizens have lost confidence in themselves, their government and even their friends. It is as though much of what we hold dear in this nation has been leveled, decimated and even destroyed.
Father Richard gave us the motto some 200 years ago; “We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.” Together, we can hope for better things and rise from the ashes of 2020. America, it is time to not only bounce back, but to bounce forward!