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Americans are devoted family people« Thread Started on Apr 2

Daily newsbrief journal for April 2007, also see http://www.usdemocrats.com/brief for a global 100-page perpetual brief and follow twitter @usdemocrats


Americans are devoted family people« Thread Started on Apr 2

Postby admin » Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:42 am

Americans are devoted family people« Thread Started on Apr 28, 2007, 11:35am » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Americans are devoted family people. 34/ We want the best for our families, without reservation. We treasure the values of caring, nurturing, concern, and responsibility that family bonds bring. Our families keep us together, support us, and help us along the way.Americans are a religious people. 35/ Nearly all Americans believe in God. 36/ Yet ours is a practical faith. Americans believe that our houses of worship should spend more time teaching charity here on Earth than preparing for life after we leave it. 37/ Many Americans seek the ideal of the “Beloved Community” — to build just a corner of the kingdom of God’s love right here on Earth. 38/ Americans believe that we find the word of God in the Bible, 39/ where it teaches that a parent’s compassion and mercy, graciousness, slowness to anger, abounding kindness, faithfulness, steadfast love, and forgiveness are the attributes that describe God. 40/If in our families and our souls we highly treasure qualities like these, we should also value them as a community and a Nation. The values that are good for the family are good for the Nation, as well. Our personal values and our social values should agree. Values are not just how we act when no one else is around; values are also how we act when everyone is together.As we learned in kindergarten, to be good we must look out for other people, as well. We must remember our responsibility to all our brothers and sisters, for they were all created in God’s image. Since the days of Eden, we have always been our brother’s keeper.It is an almost universal article of faith in all creeds that we as humans avow. As recorded in Leviticus 41/ and espoused by Aristotle, 42/ Hillel, 43/ Jesus, 44/ Paul, 45/ James, 46/ Confucius, 47/ and Kant, 48/ we are commanded: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”John Donne said it: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” 49/ At their best, our national values acknowledge our interdependence with our community, with our region, with all Americans. Our political values should recognize that we are each involved in humankind, and that the quality of practical charity toward our larger family of America’s children is the most important family value of all.The better part of America has long believed that there is more to life than just looking out for number one, numb to those around us. For America at its best, narrow self interest has never been the key. Self interest does not inspire the soul. Americas by the millions have been continually moved by the desire to do that which makes us proud that we did it.Our moral judgments are what bind us and lead us to be a better America. What will keep America a great nation is not that more of the world’s rich can call this Land home, but that we can call this Land the home of a rich moral vision of freedom and equity, of liberty and compassion.Hubert Humphrey said it: “[T]he moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life — the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.” 50/We should seek to ensure for others as well as ourselves the blessings of good food, warm shelter, clean environment, adequate health care, safe homes, peace, and good jobs. Americans are a good people when we seek a better America for all. As a Nation, we need to demonstrate the caring, nurturing, and concern for America’s children that a family has for its children. We should show sensitivity, commitment, and fairness along the way. Our society should exhibit compassion, mercy, kindness, faithfulness, steadfast love, and forgiveness toward its children, so that we may construct a part of that Beloved Community.We need to restore the family values that put our children first. For if we do not advance the interests of those who will inherit the future of our society, then we have no vision. And if we do not protect the most helpless of our society, then we have no heart. And if we do not support the most innocent of our society, then we have no soul.With the birth of our children, each of us knows what we believe in for our country. You hold a child in your hands and you say to yourself, “I know what I believe in for the future.”Every infant, every child that we hold in our hands — no matter what color of skin, no matter boy or girl, no matter rich or poor, no matter rural or urban, and no matter what religion — is one of God’s children. Every child, every infant should have the same chance to reach his or her potential. That is the goodness of this country, that is the American dream, and that is what will make us a better America.Think of those children, and you can believe in a new American Century of Justice. Think of those children, and you can believe in a New Fellowship among all Americans. Think of those children, and you can believe we can all board that train, that common American journey, and get to that good country where we need to go. Notes:1. Declaration of Independence (1776). Adams wrote, “The happiness of society is the end of government.” John Adams, Thoughts on Government (1776). George Mason had written: “That all men . . . have certain inherent rights . . . ; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” Virginia Declaration of Rights, § 1 (1776).2. Francis Hutcheson, Inquiry Concerning Moral Good and Evil § 3 (1720). Benthem echoed: “The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.” Jeremy Benthem, 10 Works 142 (1789). Mill followed: “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism ch. 2 (1863).3. UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Large Gap in Food Availability Between Rich and Poor Countries — New Map on Nutrition Released (Dec. 9, 1998) (comparing average daily dietary energy supply in kilocalories availability per person per day, Denmark has 3,780, Portugal has 3,650, and Ireland and the United States have 3,620) .4. Id. (quoting Hartwig de Haen, FAO Assistant Director-General and head of its Economic and Social Department).5. Id. (average daily dietary energy supplies in kilocalories of 1,720 in Mozambique, 1,710 in Burundi and Afghanistan, 1,640 in Eritrea, and 1,580 in Somalia).6. John Pomfret, “Portrait of a Famine,” Wash. Post, Feb. 12, 1999, at A1; Elisabeth Rosenthal, “In North Korean Hunger, Legacy Is Stunted Children,” N.Y. Times, Dec. 10, 1998, at A1; Bradley Graham, “Weeks of Give-and-Take Led to Defense Spending Boost,” Wash. Post, Jan. 14, 1999, at A12 (North Korea devotes more than 27 percent of its economic output to defense spending, compared with 3.6 percent in the U.S.).7. U.S. Department of Agriculture (1997) .8. See Second Harvest, Hunger 1997: The Faces & Facts (those who in 1997 received food from Second Harvest’s network of food banks alone) .9. U.S. Conference of Mayors, A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America’s Cities: 1997 (29-city survey) . In New York, grocery handouts and soup kitchen meals rose from 13.5 million to more than 21 million between 1987 and 1995, and officials believe the growth has continued, while in Arizona, after holding fairly steady from 1990 to 1993, the number of meals distributed through the statewide food-charity network has since risen 50 percent. Andrew C. Revkin, “Welfare Policies Altering Face of Lines at Charities Offering Food,” N.Y. Times, Feb. 26, 1999, at A1.10. MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger .11. See U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air Quality Planning and Statistics, National Air Pollutant Emission Trends Report, 1900 -1996, at ES-1 (1998) (EPA-454/R-97-011) (air quality has improved since enactment of the Clean Air Act in 1970) .12. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey ix (Jan. 1997) .13. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air Quality Planning and Statistics, USA Air Quality Nonattainment Areas (Oct. 19, 1998) .14. U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership: Third Quarter 1998 (Oct. 22, 1998) (press release CB98-190) .15. Bruce Link, et al, “Life-time and Five-Year Prevalence of Homelessness in the United States: New Evidence on an Old Debate,” 63 American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 347-354 (July 1995) .16. National Coalition for the Homeless, Homelessness in America: Unabated and Increasing (1997) .17. See Deborah Sontag, “For Poor, Life ‘Trapped in a Cage,’” N.Y. Times, Oct. 6, 1996, § 1, at 1.18. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization, 1996: Changes 1995-96 with Trends 1993-96, at 8 (after statistical adjustments for change in survey design in 1992); see also U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: 1997 .19. Associated Press, “Serious Crime Continues Six-Year Decline, FBI Data Show: Violence in U.S. Wanes, Report Says,” Wash. Post, Dec. 14, 1998, at A8; U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: 1997, at 16 ; see also Michael Cooper, “Homicides Decline Below 1964 Level in New York City,” N.Y. Times, Dec. 24, 1998, at A1; Philip P. Pan, “D.C. Murders Down; Suburban Killings Up,” Wash. Post, Jan. 1, 1999, at A1.; E. J. Dionne Jr., “Good News For Real,” Wash. Post, Jan. 1, 1999, at A25; Associated Press, “Murder Rate in 1997 Reached 30-Year Low, Says Justice Dept.,” Wash. Post, Jan. 3, 1999, at A18..20. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: 1997, at 12 .21. The murder rate in the United States was 74 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1976. Patrick A. Langan & David P. Farrington, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime and Justice in the United States and England and Wales, 1981-96, at 5 (Oct. 1998) (NCJ 169284) . In 1990, it was for England and Wales 13, Japan 15, South Korea 15, Spain 16, Australia 19, Israel 25, Austria 31, Chile 30, Denmark 47, Germany 47, Canada 59, Peru 60, Ukraine 62, Ethiopia 70, Armenia 72, and India 80. See United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network, Fourth United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (murders) (population).22. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: 1997 (chart 2.1) .23. American Judges Foundation, Domestic Violence & The Court Room: Understanding the Problem . . . Knowing the Victim .24. American Psychological Ass’n, Violence and the Family: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 10 (1996) . Even by the most conservative estimate, a million American women suffer nonfatal violence by an intimate every year. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special Report: Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey 3 (Aug. 1995) (NCJ-154348). Others have estimated that as many as 4 million American women experience a serious assault by an intimate partner every year. American Psychological Ass’n, Violence and the Family: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 10 (1996).25. Patrick A. Langan & David P. Farrington, U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime and Justice in the United States and England and Wales, 1981-96, at 44 (Oct. 1998) (NCJ 169284) (1991 data) . Nearly one in every 150 Americans are incarcerated. Timothy Egan, “Less Crime More Criminals,” N.Y. Times, Mar. 7, 1999, § 4 (Week in Review), at 1; Edward Walsh, “Prison Population Still Rising, but More Slowly: 1.8 Million People Incarcerated in Federal, State or Local Facilities,” Wash. Post, Mar. 15, 1999, A2.26. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: 1997, at 221 .27. Even the conservative Heritage Foundation grades America among the nations with the most economic freedom, ranking the United States sixth out of 160, behind only Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain, and New Zealand, and ahead of any other major industrialized nation. Bryan T. Johnson, Kim R. Holmes, and Melanie Kirkpatrick, Heritage Foundation, 1999 Index of Economic Freedom 28. Based on purchasing power parities in 1996, United States gross domestic product per capita exceeds that of all 28 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) except Luxembourg. See Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, “Purchasing Power Parities and International Comparisons of Real GDP: 28 OECD Member Countries and Four Non Members: GDP — 1996” (release no. SG/COM/NEWS(98)86) .29. Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, Make Gentle the Life of This World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy 21 (1998).30. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty ch. 5.31. See The Harris Poll, July 17-21, 1998 (The pollster asked those (84 percent) who said they believe in the survival of the soul after death: “When you die, where do you think you will go: heaven, hell, purgatory, or somewhere else?” 76 percent replied “heaven.”) . We do, however, have some doubts about the other guy: Seven in ten do not think that people in general today lead as good lives — honest and moral — as they used to, up from only half 30 years ago. David S. Broder & Richard Morin, “Struggle Over New Standards: American Values 1968-1998,” Wash. Post, Dec. 27, 1998, at A1.32. See Lydia Saad, “‘Most Admired’ Poll Finds Americans Lack Major Heroes: Mother Teresa’s Death Leaves a Void on List of Most Admired Women,” Gallup Poll Archives (Jan. 1, 1998) ;Leslie McAneny, “A Fourth of All Americans ‘Most Admire’ Mother Teresa: Clinton Notches Fourth Straight Win,” Gallup Poll Archives (Dec. 27, 1996) (Pollsters asked: “What man/woman that you have heard or read about, living today in any part of the world, do you admire most? And who is your second choice?” Gallup based rankings on a combination of the first and second choices.) ; Associated Press, “Clintons Are Most Admired Man, Woman in Annual Poll,” Wash. Post, Jan. 2, 1999, at A2. In 1996, the last poll before her death, nearly a quarter of respondents — well more than for any other woman — named Mother Theresa, and she had been among the top contenders and often first since entering the list in 1979. Billy Graham ranked among the top ten 41 times and 35 years in a row. In contrast, only two entertainers — Bob Hope and Bill Cosby — ever cracked the men’s top ten. One in ten Americans names someone they know — a friend or relative — as the man or woman they most admire. The sitting President and First Lady usually top their respective lists.33. Stephen L. Carter, Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy 3-4 (1998) (footnotes omitted).34. Even young adults put family as their top priority, and nearly three-quarters are closer to family than friends. Julie Hinds, “Gen Xers Have Family Values after All, National Poll Says,” Detroit News (Apr. 12, 1996) .35. Two-thirds maintain an affiliation with a church or synagogue and six in ten consider religion highly important in their lives. Frank Newport & Lydia Saad, “Religious Faith Is Widespread but Many Skip Church: Little Change in Recent Years,” Gallup Poll Archives (Mar. 29, 1997) . Almost two-thirds of parents of families with children under 18 give thanks to God aloud before meals, up from 43 percent 50 years ago. Frank Newport, “Americans’ Relationship with Their Children: Much Remains the Same: Parents Claim To Spend More Time with Them; Give Themselves Good Grades,” Gallup Poll Archives (Mar. 15, 1997) . Fully 82 grew up in a family that was active in a church, synagogue, or other place of religious worship; six in ten consider religion “very important” in their own lives (and another 26 percent call it “fairly important”); six in ten say grace, or give thanks to God aloud, before meals; and most attend church or synagogue at least once or twice a month. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “The Diminishing Divide . . . American Churches, American Politics” (June 25, 1996) . These days, teens rebel by going to church and synagogue. Lisa Miller, “Rebels With a Cause,” Wall St. J., Dec. 18, 1998, at W1.36. Nineteen out of twenty believe in God, and more than seven in ten are “absolutely certain” of that belief. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “The Diminishing Divide . . . American Churches, American Politics” (June 25, 1996) ; see also The Harris Poll, July 17-21, 1998 (94 percent ). Even nine out of ten young adults believe in God. Julie Hinds, “Gen Xers Have Family Values after All, National Poll Says,” Detroit News (Apr. 12, 1996) .37. Three out of four believe that it is more important for the church to teach people how to live better every day with all other people than to convert people to a spiritual belief so that they can earn a happy life after death (and one in ten volunteered that they ought to do both). Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “The Diminishing Divide . . . American Churches, American Politics” (June 25, 1996) .38. The idea of the “Beloved Community” has inspired cultural critics since the turn of the Century and played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement and its successors. See, e.g., Casey Nelson Blake, Beloved Community: The Cultural Criticism of Randolph Bourne, Van Wyck Brooks, Waldo Frank, and Lewis Mumford (1990); Kenneth L. Smith & Ira G. Zepp, Search for the Beloved Community: The Thinking of Martin Luther King Jr. (1998); John Lewis & Michael D’Orso, Walking with the Wind 87 (1998); Donald M. Chinula, Building King’s Beloved Community: Foundations for Pastoral Care and Counseling With the Oppressed (1997); Lewis V. Baldwin, Toward the Beloved Community: Martin Luther King, Jr., and South Africa (1995).39. Fully 82 percent believe that the Bible is the word of God, and fully 35 percent believe it “is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.” Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “The Diminishing Divide . . . American Churches, American Politics” (June 25, 1996) .40. See Exodus 34:6-7; Walter Brueggemann, “The Book of Exodus” in 1 The New Interpreter’s Bible 946 (1994); W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary 663-64 (1981).41. “[Y]ou shall love your neighbor as yourself : I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:18 (New Revised Standard Version).42. “We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.” Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. 5, ‘ 21.43. “What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary.” Talmud Shabbat.44. “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12 (New Revised Standard Version). “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Id. 19:19 (quoting “the commandments”). “And a second [commandment] is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Id. 22:39-40. “The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31.45. “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Romans 13:8-9. “[T]he whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Galatians 5:14.46. “You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” James 2:8.47. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” Confucius, The Analects 15:23.48. “There is . . . only a single categorical imperative and it is this: Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysic of Morals ch. 11 (1797).49. John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions no. 17 (1624) .50. 123 Cong. Rec. 37,287 (Nov. 4, 1977) (remarks on the dedication of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Nov. 1,
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