John Kasich - It’s Up to Us: Ten Little Ways We Can Bring About Big Change

A Little Book about Big Change

We all want the same things. We want to live a life of purpose and meaning. We want to leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren. We want to leave the world a better place. And yet we spend so much time wringing our hands over whats wrong and not nearly enough time fixing those things within our control.

John Kasich has walked the corridors of power both in politics, as a former leader of Congress, governor of Ohio and presidential candidate, and in the private sector, as an in-demand public speaker, a bestselling author and a strategic adviser to businesses and large nonprofits. Yet hes seen that the most powerful movements have started from the bottom up. Rather than waiting on Washington, the solutions happen once we become leaders in our own lives and communities. The strength and resilience of our nation lies in each of us. Thats what this book is about.

In Its Up to Us, Kasich shares the ten little ways we each can bring about big change. Taken together, they chart a path for each of us to follow as we look to live a life bigger than ourselves. Taken one by one, they can help to lift us from a place of outrage or complacency or helplessness and move us closer to our shared American dream.

Also by John Kasich

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New York Times Bestselling Author

John Kasich

with Daniel Paisner

Its Up to Us

Ten Little Ways We Can Bring About Big Change

To everyone who is working to change the world.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Robert F. Kennedy

Contents

Nothing Good Is Lost

If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why is it that in the run-up to every national election were told that its going to be the most important election in American history? Politicians, pundits, journalists, historians...theyre all out there saying pretty much the same thing, over and over, but it never turns out to be the case.

What happens when the elections are over? Its meet the new boss, same as the old boss. If you cant place the reference, thats a classic rock lyric from The Whos Wont Get Fooled Again, but the title is where they lose me, because most of us get fooled every single time. We do. We allow ourselves to be whipped into some kind of frenzy by the media and the moment, to the point where were made to think our future hangs on the outcome of this or that election, only to find out that the world continues to spin on its axis. We catch our breath and return to our days, loving our families, worshipping our God, grousing about something the president did or said or tweeted, and doing our best to make the world a little bit better for our being here.

Sure, our elections are importantbut some elections matter more than others. Our presidential elections perhaps matter most of all because when we elect a president we look to him or her to be a leader for all of America. The president helps to set a national tone and shape our national conversation. The tone can be inclusive, supportive, and aspirational, or it can be negative, divisive, and incendiary. The conversation can lift us up or drive us down. But ultimately, its on us to embrace that tone or reject it, to continue the conversation or set it aside in favor of a new one.

Dont misunderstand me: the office of the presidency is arguably the most powerful position on the planetand its certainly the most influential. The president can take us to war. He or she can adopt policies on immigration, health care, the environment, and a host of other issues that can profoundly impact our lives for a generation. Of course, for most of these changes a president would have to go through Congress. He or she could also use executive authority to bring about change, or make judicial appointments, but even here that power would have to be ratified, either by Congress or the courts.

The point I want to make here at the outset is that we shouldnt be investing all of our emotions in that one office in the White House. Instead, we ought to be looking to our own houses, our own communities, and spending some time thinking about what we can do, together with our friends and family, to set the right tone for this nation, and to set us on the right path.

When I ran for president in 2016, I believed I could make a difference and set a positive example, but as I stepped away from the race I started to realize what I must have known on some level all along: even though it matters who sits in the White House, it doesnt matter as much as we matter. The power of the presidency should not obscure or discount the power of the people. Each of us has the ability to make as much of an impact in our communities as the president is able to make on a national or international scale. As a nation of caring, thinking, feeling people, we are not powerless in the grand scheme of our democracy; in fact, we can be profoundly powerful in small ways that can have an enormous impact on the lives all around us.

All of which takes me to the central thesis of these pages: what you do matters. What we do matters. We are blessed with the ability to make a difference, to send a message to the powerful elites in Washington, to put it out there that the change we want to see is the change were prepared to make happen.

Think about some of the great changes that have taken place in this country over the past 250 years. Think about some of the ways weve moved the needle on progress and tolerance and opportunity. Most of the time, these changes have come about at the ground level. Societal change flows from the bottom up, and not from the top down, and its almost always driven by the passion and purpose of selfless individuals who push for a way to make these changes happenthey demand them, really , and it doesnt matter whos sitting in office when the voices of the people have something to say.

Think about this, too: on a day-to-day basis, does the president truly affect you? Here again, not as much as most people think. Absolutely, the president can make a kind of statement about who we are on the world stage; for good or ill, he or she becomes the public face of our great nation. But Ill tell you what really affects you: your family, your neighbors, your community, the road that needs repaving on the way into town, or the new turf field the booster club is hoping to lay in over at the high school so your student-athletes can practice in all kinds of weather.

What matters is how we do right by each other, how we collaborate with our coworkers, how we show kindness to those in need, and how we receive kindness in return. It matters how we make room in our lives for faith and family and friendships. I want to spend some time on these things in the pages ahead because I believe they are important. In fact, I believe they are all-important . Why does my opinion matter? Well, I have some experience in this area. Ive served in public office for thirty years, including nine terms as an Ohio congressman and two terms as Ohios governor. Ive run for president. Twice. Ive got a pretty good idea how our government works at all levels, and how it doesnt, and now that Im out here in the private sector Id like to think Ive learned a thing or two about how to contribute in a meaningful way to our American conversation.