To the global CIC community,
The world is going through a particularly difficult period right now, characterized by hatred, fear, and division.
In the last week we have been witness to extremist/terrorist attacks in Charlottesville, Spain, Burkina Faso, and Finland. There have been demonstrations in various cities, notably those of white supremacists in Charlottesville. Their rhetoric and actions demand that we think carefully about who we are and what matters to us in our society.
“Our society” is not something simply given to us. It is something that we create for each other, every day, in our actions, words, and the other ways that we express our values in our home and work lives.
At CIC we strive to create a platform where bright minds of all origins can work together to change the world for the better. Our job is to facilitate great ideas by removing obstacles from entrepreneurs and innovators. To actualize possibility. We would be mistaken if we thought that racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia are not barriers to this.
Here in the U.S. we have faced many conflicts, including conflicts of the same nature as those that have occurred last week. We as a nation have not always agreed with one another. Even the concept of “America” is multi-faceted and ever-changing, a living document. Much like CIC, our great American experiment will only work if we engage with it. Let’s draw hope from this because it means we have opportunities to act upon the values we care most about.
There will always be setbacks, but what matters is our reaction to those setbacks. We can stand up for our values and continue to define what we wish to be our American experience. Some would say that it is not inevitable that we will create a better world. I believe it is. It is because I believe, as President Obama recently said, that it is more natural to love than to hate. In the end, love will win, if we make it so.
The values I express here are the values of CIC as well, and we are not afraid to espouse them in the world. There is no place at CIC for racism. There is no place for discrimination against women, against members of any religion, against the LGBTQ+ community, or against any other group.
We will not take for granted that we are part of the conversation and we will never stop showing up for what we believe in.
Thank you for being part of the CIC experiment.
Tim Rowe, CIC Founder and CEO
