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The Communitarian Update
Number 44
April 3, 2002
Tell us what you think!
A court in Philadelphia is considering whether or not the government should
require schools and libraries, who are connected to the Internet with public
funds, to install filters on their computers to prevent minors from being
exposed to pornographic material. What should the court rule and on what grounds?
(For more information on the story, see the New York Times, "Shhh! We're Trying
to Surf" by John Schwartz, 3/31/02)
Please respond briefly, tell us if we may include your response in our feedback,
and how to identify you. We shall do not run anonymous responses because we hold
that true identities make for better dialogues.
Communitarian Dialogue: The Volunteerism Revolution: How to Make it a Reality
The next communitarian dialogue will be held on Monday, April 22, 2002 at School
of Media and Public Affairs, 805 21st Street, NW (corner of 21st & H), Room B02.
Participants will include John Bridgeland (director of the USA Freedom Corps),
Les Lenkowsky (CEO of the Corporation for National Community Service), Senator
John McCain (invited) and Sara Melendez of the Independent Sector (invited).
Amitai Etzioni will guide the discussion.
Two Events in Berlin
The Aspen Institute in Berlin will host a debate on "When is War Just?" with
David Blankenhorn and Amitai Etzioni on Wednesday, April 10, 2002.
For more information, see: http://www.aspenberlin.org/debate.htm. On April 12,
2002, the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin will host a colloquium on "Diversity and
Citizenship" with Georg Elwert, Claus Offe, Hedwig Rudolph, Wolfgang van den Daele
and Amitai Etzioni. For more information, see:
http://www.wz-berlin.de/aktuell/kol_diversity.de.htm
NOT TO BE MISSED!
In the next issue of The Responsive Community, Richard Rorty, David Novak, Cass
Sunstein, Simon Blackburn, William Galston, and others will discuss the relationship
between relativism and September 11 when they respond to Stanley Fish's essay, "Blaming
Postmodernism"; Fish will present a rejoinder. Subscribe to The Responsive Community now
by visiting: http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/rcq or call us at (800) 245-7460.
Communitarian Coffee?
Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks, is featured in an article titled "The Capitalist
Communitarian" in the March 24, 2002 issue of the New York Times Magazine.
Guns and Kids
Firearms kill more children in the United States than any other cause except motor-vehicle
crashes and cancer. Before an American child reaches 15, he or she is 12 times more likely
to die of gunshot wounds than a child anywhere else in the industrialized world.
("Firearm Availability and Unintentional Firearm Deaths, Suicide and Homicide Among 5-14-Year-Olds,"
Journal of Trauma, 2002)
Grade Inflation at Harvard
About half of the grades awarded in recent years to Harvard students were either A's or A-'s.
91% of seniors graduated with honors last June. Lawrence Summers, Harvard's president, has been
urging professors to curb grade inflation in their own classrooms. Another proposal that's been
raised is that the university stop giving honors to students who earn only a B average. If such
a policy had been in place last year, about a quarter of the students who received honors would
not have. (New York Times, 2/1/2002)
Recommendations for Faith-Based Groups
The Working Group on Human Needs and Faith-based and Community Initiatives, a remarkable collection
of 33 people, from the ACLU to Evangelicals for Social Action, agreed on 29 specific recommendations
to increase the capacity of faith-based groups to address human needs without creating constitutional
violations. The group was facilitated by Search for Common Ground. The report and related press
coverage can be viewed at www.working-group.org
Medical Privacy
Drs. David Korn and Jennifer Kulynch of the Association of Medical Colleges explore the effect of the
new federal medical-privacy rule on research in the New England Journal of Medicine, January 17,
2002. See their web site at: www.nejm.org
Global Justice Conference
The 6th Working for Global Justice Conference will be held at Georgetown University on April 5-7,
2002. This year's conference theme is "Resources and Conflict in Africa." There will be panels and
workshops on wide-ranging subjects, including social work, globalization and terrorism, human rights,
and many others. Contact: globaljusticeconference2002@yahoo.com.
Book Review
For a savage, profound, penetrating review of Sheldon Wolin's Tocqueville Between Two Worlds: The
Making of a Political and Theoretical Life, see Stephen Holmes's article in the New Republic, March
4 & 11, 2002.
New Publications
The Communitarian Persuasion by Philip Selznick (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2002) -- Selznick
situates communitarianism as a public philosophy and relates the communitarian project to key social
and political questions raised by the recent transformations of modern life. He also reflects on the
appropriate demands of the common good and on religious faith's contributions to community.
Sticking Together: The Israeli Experiment in Pluralism by Yaakov Kop and Robert Litan (Brookings
Institution Press, March 2002) -- Highly diverse societies facing a host of challenges in maintaining
cohesion can look to Israel--yes, Israel--for some lessons, argue in a provocative new book just
published by the Brookings Institution. The book can be ordered through the Brookings website at:
http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/press/books/sticking_together.htm
9-11 by Noam Chomsky (Seven Stories Press, 2002) - Chomsky condemns the attacks specifically and
then suggests that the deaths are entirely the responsibility of capitalist globalization. Available
from Amazon.com
Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: Should Government Help Faith-Based Charity? edited by E.J. Dionne,
Jr. and Ming Hsu Chen (Brookings Institution Press, 2001) What are congregations' proper roles in
lifting up the poor? What should their relationship with government be? These questions are explored
with a lively discussion that crisscrosses every line of partisanship and ideology. They offer
conclusions about what congregations are currently doing, how government could help, and how government
could usefully get out of the way.
Meaning and Modernity: Religion, Polity, and Self edited by Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann
Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton (University of California Press). Deepening and developing Bellah et.
al's Habits of the Heart (California, 1985), this volume presents original essays by leading thinkers
in the social sciences, philosophy, and religion. Full information about the book is available from:
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9200.html
Beyond Sociology's Tower of Babel: Reconstructing the Scientific Method by Bernard Phillips (Aldine de
Gruyter, 2001). The book explains and illustrates procedures for integrating social science knowledge
as a basis for confronting social problems in general, including the problem of achieving community.
For further information, contact bernieflps@aol.com or contact the publisher at
http://www.degruyter.de/aldine
Welcome new endorsers!
Join other communitarians who have read and endorsed our platform. Go to our web site:
http://www.communitariannetwork.org. Recent endorsers include Dennis Jaffe (Washington, DC),
Marc Konicov (Wakefield, MA), and Jim Flechtner (Findlay, OH).
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