When Interfaith America staff got the opportunity to visit the newly opened Obama Presidential Center Museum, I was thrilled. The tall building is a new and unique landmark in Chicago’s South Side and the hottest ticket in town.
Being there reminded me of another favorite museum of mine, the African American History Museum in Washington D.C. Both museums are set up in a way that allows visitors to travel through history, individually through exhibits. As you move from floor to floor, you’ve invited into interactive exhibits that work together to tell a larger, progressive story.
One of my favorite parts of the Obama Presidential Center Museum is the open central space connecting the museum’s three main floors. This space feature different video clips and photographs as a backdrop to various speeches and remarks by the Obamas. On one floor, I stood shoulder to shoulder with a colleague among a small, diverse crowd and listened to President Obama’s 2017 farewell address.
We were moved to tears. I was reminded of an important, crucial element of our work: It is just as important to believe in the hope of a better future as it is to work towards it.
As I listened, I thought of John Paul Lederach, scholar and peacebuilder, who introduced the concept of Moral Immigration: the idea that peacebuilding is not only a skill but also an art, that individuals must be able to imagine a better future in order to bring it to reality. I also thought of Reverend Jen Bailey, who I once heard on a webinar talk about the unique power people of faith have to bring creativity, imagination, and faith to the dream of a better future.
Our work at Interfaith America, and my work with the Team Up Project, aims to tell a different story about our nation and our communities than what is so often in headlines: That we are better, stronger, and yes, more American when we work together across difference for the common good.
It is one thing to go through the motions each day in pursuit of those goals. It is another thing entirely to believe in that vision and to hope for its realization. Thank you to the Obama Presidential Center for reminding me just how important, how revolutionary, that hope can be.
Abbie Haug
Abbie Haug is Assistant Director of National Bridgebuilding Initiatives at Interfaith America.
