"Society becomes how you behave"

This quote came from Eric Liu during his interview with KUOW's Steve Scher this morning, "What Makes a Great Citizen?"

Eric Liu is an author, educator and creator of the Guiding Lights Weekend, a group that seeks to foster greater community participation. He served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and later as the president's deputy domestic policy adviser. Now he teaches at the University of Washington and hosts an acclaimed television interview program called "Seattle Voices." His latest book is called "Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility."

I appreciated what Liu said in his interview. He discussed a dynamic that I've been grappling with for many years: how can people with such fundamental differences in political philosophy learn to put aside their disagreements for the greater good? One of the resonant points he made at the end of his interview was that "society becomes how you behave" -- a variant upon Ghandi's adage "be the change that you want to see in the world," yet no less profound in spite of its near-cliche status.

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