Rain or shine, our candidates will hear our voices on issues that matter most to us. We want to know what they will do to improve our community's values. Tomorrow, we will know what our candidates will do to make policies benefit all rather than a few. Tomorrow, nothing will stop us to put our community values into action.

Well, it's a sunny beautiful day here in North Carolina and we are gearing up for our "sync event" here. We'll be watching the forum with community members, and I'll be posting on our reactions to the debate as it is happening. The candidates may be in Iowa, but we'll be hearing them loud and clear in California, New York, North Carolina and other states where we will be watching the event and holding community forums to debate and discuss.

Throughout the day I'll be reporting on the success of everyday community leaders to get the Presidential candidates to adopt and use our community values framework. Will the candidates speak AGAINST the go-it-alone mentality and FOR a recognition that we are all in this together? Will they choose the politics of connection rather than those of separation? Will the candidates speak from the heart and not from a tired old script? Will the candidates get really "real" with us? Stay tuned, this is going to be an exciting day in American politics!

We're excited to hear your reactions and thoughts from the candidates' responses to our questions! Let's hope that they realize we are all in this together and they'll want to make our community values our country's values.

Well, we're in the hall for the Heartland Forum and the preparations are ongoing -- moderators checking the sound system, gospel singers honing their harmonies, staff and volunteers scurrying to address last-minute hiccups, press busy setting up banks of laptops. But most of all, despite the weather, people are arriving here for what will likely amount to one of the best conversations of this electoral season: with real people asking real questions about real issues, the Heartland Forum promises to be heartfelt.

The lineup of questioners is diverse: a poultry worker from Mississippi, a family farmer from Iowa, a high school student from California, and so many more. For just a few hours, they will make sure that speculation about the horse race is set aside in favor of an honest debate about our American future. For just a few hours, they will suggest that the politics of division and appeals to subgroups should give way to “community values”: a recognition that we are all in this together.

The challenge is to stretch this tone and tenor beyond the hours of the Forum itself. This, like the election itself, is a time-limited event. The organizations hosting the Forum understand this -- they are community groups whose bread and butter is the patient one-on-one relationship-building that builds movements, and they see elections as but a moment in a long process of social change. But moments are important -- and it is a big deal that we are here, we are ready, and we are together.