(Sorry guys, this article isn’t about what you thought it was about. But hey, the title worked—you’re here. So read on!)

An article in this morning’s New York Times laments “The Great American Cleavage,” the fact that—as indicated by recent elections—there is increasing political, religious and philosophical polarization in America these days and fewer of us in the center. My casual observations would support that notion.

My Republican friends are more overt in their strident Republicanism and anti-Democrat taunts while my Democrat friends……..oh wait, I don’t have any Democrat friends…….well, there is Kurt Wolfram, but I think he’s faking it just to keep everyone on edge….and then there is Jessica Spragg, but if we didn’t have her to rib who could I joke with…….well, at least the Democrats I see on TV, hear on the radio and read in the paper seem to be shrill-voiced, angry, even nasty in their demeanor. But then. my Republican friends are similar with perhaps only a touch more patriarchal gentility in their tone. One emailed me just this week after he’d seen us out on a carriage ride (see how genteel we Republicans can be—-carriage riding. How quaint!) during which he’d asked “Are these Republican horses?” and told me he knew they were Republican horses because they hadn’t left any crap on the streets. (Kinda funny. Worth a slight rim-shot on a snare drum and a minor harumph.)

That’s what its come down to, those with different philosophies have become caricatures instead of people.  The unthinking and vociferous manner in which we attack each other personally—because we don’t want to do the heavy intellectual lifting of thinking through what we believe, understanding what they believe, comparing, contrasting and then vigorously debating the philosophy with which we disagree—has created a national divide unlikely to be repaired. It’s simply easier to Jerry Springerize the conversation than it is to think and talk and challenge. Yet, Isaiah says the people of God are to be the restorers of the breach. So we who call ourselves His ought to at least be thinking about how to shift the tone so we can become thermostats that control the temperature of dialogue rather than thermometers that respond to it.

I believe the reason we’re divided is that we don’t know who we are. WE don’t have a culture anymore. Every individual has become a culture unto himself. We’ve heightened individualism, dummed-down morality, and reduced the teaching of who we are and where we came from. It’s no wonder we are confused as a people.

Let’s be honest, it’s gotten to where the Jaywalking segment on the Tonight Show has gone way beyond being funny that people don’t know basic things about America’s history, geography and politics and has instead become a sad indictment of our country. I propose a few ideas that might turn the tide.

#1. Let’s teach history & geography in school. Students should learn how civilization spread from it’s Middle-Eastern and North African cradle across the European continent to become what America is today. Students should learn about the oppression of autocratic government that led pilgrims to risk everything for the simple opportunity to be free. The should learn that freedom is an implicit gift from God and with it comes immense responsibility. They should be taught, challenged, and expected to step-up and embrace their responsibility to God, to humanity, and to the country. They should learn the unpopular lesson that WE is more important than ME, and be tested, drilled, challenged, and coerced to prioritize the good of the group over the good of the individual.

#2. We’ve got to require intellectual heavy-lifting. Our population has been over-run with intellectual midgets, not because they don’t have capacity, but because learning and thinking is hard-work. I’m no intellectual heavyweight. I’m kind of a middle-weight. I’ve met some heavy-weight thinkers and wow! They were impressive in their ability to bring together world history, cultural philosophy, economic reality and cultural plurality into cohesive thoughts about where we are and where we needed to go. We need to turn off the damned TV (curse highly intentional), pick up a book, learn, think, and converse. We need to challenge each other and learn the skill of argument. Puny intellects who refuse to attempt meager progress in their ability to think will necessarily be relegated to a position of inconsequence.

#3. English. That’s where we came from. Not everyone who settled America or has immigrated here came from English speaking countries but they all came in pursuit of freedom and opportunity that America provides. That opportunity rests on a foundation of rebellion, yearning, and risk taking that our forefathers embraced in order to create what is America. English is our language. In order for a team to win they have to establish a common lexicon of words that have meaning so that when the someone says “x” all the things that “x” means come to mind. It happens that in America we express “x’ in utterance that is labeled English. Embracing English is part of the package of embracing America.

Lest you think I am being inappropriately English-centric, you should know I am learning Spanish because I’m involved in missions projects in a Spanish speaking country and when I go there I know that I’ll be more effective if I learn to speak their language. The fact that people argue against this is beyond absurd, it is idiotic. In America English is the language, moreover it is the language of commerce in the world. Speak it.

#4. Pull your pants up, learn to say “yes, Sir; yes, Ma’am; please; and thank you.”

Those are a few of my starting thoughts. What are yours?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the final 5%; about not letting up; about pushing through till the end; about playing hard ’til the buzzer sounds.

It’s easy to complete 10 of your 12 reps on the weights and think “Aw, I lifted today. That’s good enough.”

It’s easy to walk 2 1/2 of your three miles of exercise and think “Aw, that’s enough.”

It’s easy to think that your spouse or kids or co-workers know you love them so there’s no need to tell them.

When you are winning in the athletic contest or the game of business, it’s tempting to ease up—to relax and coast until the buzzer sounds, and that’s when your competitor overtakes you and you lose the game.

It’s all about the final 5%.

When I was a kid playing baseball my coaches always made a big deal about running out first base even though it was obvious you were about to be thrown out. You never know when the first baseman is going to drop the ball; Likely when he thinks to himself “aw, this is easy. We got him.” So he slacks, doesn’t bear down, fails to focus, gets careless, drops the ball, and misses the easy out. He didn’t give it the final 5%.

Success is often about persistence—hanging on just a little bit longer than everyone else. Then you win the game and get all the marbles because everyone else quit and went home. They were ninety-five-percenters.

I want to be the guy who gives the final 5%, and get’s the 100% for doing so. That’s the kind of people I want on my team, and in my tribe. Those are the people who win.

In the midst of an 80% culture (or 60%, or whatever it really is out there) you and I can excel as champions if we’ll learn to be hundred-percenters. But even excellent people like us are tempted to pull up short and coast, and it jeopardizes us.

How are you doing with the final 5%?

It’s part of being human, or Christian, at least American. When our neighbor has a fire we run to help.

Fires happen all the time. Sometimes there are smoke and flames. Heart attacks and sickness, death, storms, job loss, wayward kids (or spouses), marital pain, financial reversal; those are just some of the fires happening in the lives of people around us.

We had two fires in our company this week. The first was a formal-eviction-set-your-stuff-out-on-the-curb-while-the-sheriff-stands-by kind of fire where a lady refused to pay her rent and refused to move out. Glyn, who runs our property management division, told me of how he called Phil and Justin from our construction team, and they brought some of their subcontractors (who didn’t get paid to come do this), and then Goeff and Elijah from our office stepped in, and Joe, and Mark from the field, and in less than 30 minutes they had an entire house totally emptied out and set on the street corner. 30 minutes! Our guys ran toward the fire, not away from it.

The second fire came when our #1 key, professional, credentialed, outside team member  (and a person for whom we’d had the utmost and deepest respect  and who we trusted so much that we’d given him control of our bank accounts) quit via email at 3:30 p.m. on April 15 and left us with no tax returns, about $200,000 of written checks unfunded, a payroll check and distribution checks missing, but kept our files, computer, coupon books, etc. How internal people from our team and external people rushed to the fire was inspiring. Jane Knudson—whom I’ve never met but who operates www.CFOJANE.com from her DesMoines base where she does work for a friend of mine—immediately contacted us, said she’d already talked with her partner’s husband (a tax attorney) who’d said he could help us file extensions that afternoon, and said “Keep me posted. We’re here for you.” And………I’ve never met her before. THAT’S RUNNING TO THE FIRE!

We didn’t need Jane’s help at that moment, the internal team already had the fire under control. But it gave great confidence to know there was someone we could call if we needed to.

That’s the best of our American / human / Christian / whatever-it-is tradition: the way we help each other during crisis. When two of the guys in our small group were threatened with losing their jobs in the recent Sisters of Mercy / St. John’s layoff, other people in the group had already talked about what we would do to spring into action to help them. That’s running to the fire!

Many years ago, as a pastor with great responsibility, I fell into a pit of great emotional / personal trouble. The majority of the leaders in my church and virtually every pastor I knew looked the other way. But there was one guy, Pastor Gary Denbow of Christian Chapel in Columbia, Missouri who reached out to me. Gary is now the president of Central Bible College here in Springfield, Missouri. I’ve always remembered his doing that and greatly appreciated him for it. He ran toward the fire.

Fires happen. If you haven’t had one yet, you will. It’s just a matter of time.

The question for all of us to consider is: are you the kind of person who runs to the fire?

I want to be. I’m grateful to be surrounded by people who are.

When a person knows he won’t be able to keep his word, he honors his word by making that situation known to all the people who will be affected. He deals with the consequences of not keeping his word, cleans up whatever messes have been created, and makes new promises that RESTORE WORKABILITY to the situation at hand. —From The Three Laws of Performance