Spectrum

“New York Times” columnist and PBS NewsHour and NPR commentator David Brooks is searching for the heart, soul and future of America by traveling to smaller communities examining how they are successfully addressing issues. In March 2018, Brooks was appointed Executive Director of “Weave: The Social Fabric Project” sponsored by the Aspen Institute. The project is searching for local initiatives that build trust, connection and relationships among local groups with sometimes disparate backgrounds and political leanings. Recently, he spent a day in Appalachian Ohio and talked with local residents about their success in building the local economy and sense of community. Brooks feels that nationally we are in a period of heightened distrust, extreme partisanship and a blurring of truth and facts. He fears that this angst keeps getting worse and he does not seeing it turn around on the federal level. “We are lost in a valley of our hostilities and resentments,” he says. However, on many local levels across the cou