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Dear Fellows –
Welcome to the 2020 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. Since 2013, our community of Fellows has gathered annually in Colorado to reflect on the pressing challenges of our times, explore how our values can guide our leadership, and support one another as a global community committed to values-based leadership. We do this to bring our organizations, communities – and ultimately the world – closer to realizing a better society. While we are gathering virtually this year, the week ahead promises to deliver an experience as stimulating and as nourishing as any in Aspen.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought to the fore chronic ills already present in society, intensifying their impacts on the most vulnerable. These crises – health, economic, hunger, climate, worker rights, racial disparities and inequities and so many more – are inflicting tremendous pain and difficulty upon our families, our friends, and our global community, challenging us all to act. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1963 "We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action."
We know from countless examples throughout history that pain that is not transformed is transferred to others. Transformation is hard whether it’s individual, organizational, cultural, national, systemic or structural. This moment requires us to work through the discomfort and to lean into the uncomfortable leadership needed to transform our pain into the opportunity: for a better society, a better way of living, and a world that is more fair, just and equitable for all.
Over the next week, we will come together to explore this year’s theme – The Fierce Urgency of Now: Uncomfortable Leadership. We will lean into our values and consider what it means to be part of a moral revolution that sees the world with moral imagination. We will share intimate accounts of how we, as leaders in the Aspen Global Leadership Network, are leading through this fierce urgency at home, at work, and in our communities. We will examine our assumptions and privilege, as Fellows spark new ways of thinking about climate, economic, racial and gender justice. And we will conclude our time together by focusing on one of the most powerful and enduring values and levers of change – love – as we recognize that these challenges are deeply ingrained into our systems, our cultures, and our own identities. Meaningful and sustained transformation will require a multi-generational approach sustained and empowered by love.
With great challenges come great opportunities. Now is the time to be in community, be guided by values, and lead the vigorous and positive action that is so needed in every corner of the world.
We wish peace, safety, and well-being for each of you and your loved ones. We hope you find rejuvenation of your spirit and renewal of your resolve in the week ahead.
Sincerely,
Lynda Resnick Tommy Loper
Lifetime Trustee Vice President, Leadership Programs
The Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute
Welcome to the 2020 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. Since 2013, our community of Fellows has gathered annually in Colorado to reflect on the pressing challenges of our times, explore how our values can guide our leadership, and support one another as a global community committed to values-based leadership. We do this to bring our organizations, communities – and ultimately the world – closer to realizing a better society. While we are gathering virtually this year, the week ahead promises to deliver an experience as stimulating and as nourishing as any in Aspen.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought to the fore chronic ills already present in society, intensifying their impacts on the most vulnerable. These crises – health, economic, hunger, climate, worker rights, racial disparities and inequities and so many more – are inflicting tremendous pain and difficulty upon our families, our friends, and our global community, challenging us all to act. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1963 "We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action."
We know from countless examples throughout history that pain that is not transformed is transferred to others. Transformation is hard whether it’s individual, organizational, cultural, national, systemic or structural. This moment requires us to work through the discomfort and to lean into the uncomfortable leadership needed to transform our pain into the opportunity: for a better society, a better way of living, and a world that is more fair, just and equitable for all.
Over the next week, we will come together to explore this year’s theme – The Fierce Urgency of Now: Uncomfortable Leadership. We will lean into our values and consider what it means to be part of a moral revolution that sees the world with moral imagination. We will share intimate accounts of how we, as leaders in the Aspen Global Leadership Network, are leading through this fierce urgency at home, at work, and in our communities. We will examine our assumptions and privilege, as Fellows spark new ways of thinking about climate, economic, racial and gender justice. And we will conclude our time together by focusing on one of the most powerful and enduring values and levers of change – love – as we recognize that these challenges are deeply ingrained into our systems, our cultures, and our own identities. Meaningful and sustained transformation will require a multi-generational approach sustained and empowered by love.
With great challenges come great opportunities. Now is the time to be in community, be guided by values, and lead the vigorous and positive action that is so needed in every corner of the world.
We wish peace, safety, and well-being for each of you and your loved ones. We hope you find rejuvenation of your spirit and renewal of your resolve in the week ahead.
Sincerely,
Lynda Resnick Tommy Loper
Lifetime Trustee Vice President, Leadership Programs
The Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute
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