John Legend wants us all to fight for democracy

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — John Legend’s children are still too young to be full on activists, but he and his wife Chrissy Teigen are starting early to impress upon them the importance of civic engagement and caring for community.

“We try to teach them about what we’re doing, what we give to, what we donate, to what we volunteer for. We bring them along to volunteer sometimes too,” Legend told CNN. “We teach them early on that they’re blessed and that they’re in a very fortunate position in life, but not everybody is so blessed and so fortunate.”

That fact is what brought Legend to Atlanta Thursday night to perform at the Beloved Benefit, an annual event put on by the nonprofit organization The Same House to raise money for The Boys & Girls Clubs of Atlanta and other local charities.

Legend was thrilled to participate as he said he “loves the great work that they’re doing and how many people they’re able to help.”

The world needs all the help it can get right now, he told CNN, as “there’s so much we have to be concerned about.”

“I think the climate crisis is affecting so many people,” Legend continued. “We’re seeing so many climate disasters happening around the country and around the world, and I think globally that’s probably the most urgent problem we all face.”

Then there are the issues of division he would like to see Americans overcome.

“I think when it comes to cohesion and us coming together to work together to try to build a better community and a better society, I think we need to do better at that,” Legend said. “I think a lot of people are working on that in different ways. Part of it is through strengthening our democracy and fighting to make sure everyone has equal access to voting and housing and resources that they need like healthcare.”

“But there’s all kinds of ways that we can work together to try to make our community stronger,” he added. “And I think we need to work on that because I think America’s struggling right now.”

Legend and Teigen, who is a former model turned cookbook author and entrepreneur, are the parents of daughter Luna, born in 2016, son Miles born in 2018, daughter Esti, born in January 2023, and newborn son Wren born in June.

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