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The Communitarian Update
Number 46
July 12, 2002
Tell us what you think!
An anti-abortion activist, Neal Horsley, runs a Web site called the Nuremberg Files, which carries
abortion providers' names, addresses and photos and crosses out their names when they've been killed.
(Others post pictures of women entering abortion clinics.) Mr. Horsley believes maintaining this site
is part of his constitutionally protected right to free speech. The doctors who are named on the site
believe the site not only violates their privacy, but also constitutes an explicit threat. Should such
a site be protected by the First Amendment? (Read more in the Wall Street Journal, 5/28/02)
Please respond briefly, and tell us how to identify you. We do not run anonymous responses because we
hold that true identities make for better dialogues. Please also provide some details, if not your
affiliation, at least town and nation, to make use of an alias less likely and help us understand where
you are coming from--Tel Aviv or Tehran, etc.
Corporate Cheat?
You are likely to find of considerable interest a series in the Wall Street Journal (4/19, 24, 25, 26,
5/2/02) about corporations that buy life insurance on their low ranking employees, such as janitors--but
when they die, the corporations pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars but the families get nothing, zip,
zero.
Nature or Nurture?
71 percent of individuals polled say that the home environment a child grows up in is more important
than heredity of genetic makeup in determining the future health and happiness of that child. Only 11
percent said heredity was the most important factor, 16 percent said both factors equally. (Los Angeles
Times survey, 7/27-29/00)
Friends or "Friends"?
"When we watch TV and see people having a good time, we feel like we are with friends having a good time,
we are participating and we have friends," says Satoshi Kanazawa who studied the results from the General
Social Survey, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. He found
that "people who watch certain types of TV are more satisfied with their friendships as if they had more
friends and socialized with them more often." (Washington Post, 6/23/02)
Libertarian Bias?
The Economist is increasingly becoming the major serious weekly read by Americans as others are increasingly
fluffy. From a communitarian viewpoint, this is particularly troubling as the Economist's analysis, often
keen and well-written, is strongly laced with libertarian ideology. If it were renamed The Libertarian
Weekly, people would at least be aware up front what they are reading.
Muslim American Response to 9/11
Only one third of U.S. Muslims are convinced that Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network was responsible for
the September 11attacks in New York and Washington. Nonetheless, a majority say U.S. military action in
Afghanistan is justified. Nearly 75 percent of Muslim Americans report that they either know someone who
has or have themselves experienced an act of anti-Muslim discrimination, harassment, verbal abuse or
physical attack since September 11. This is according to the Muslim America Poll by Hamilton College and
Zogby International, released on May 30, 2002. See:
http://www.zogby.com/soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=4405
D.C. Area Communitarians!
We are pleased to announce a new listserv exclusively for communitarian events held in the D.C. area.
If you'd like to be informed about these events, please sign up at:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/dcsubscrib.html
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 Liz Sperling of Salford, England; Dr. Timothy
Tavis of West Palm Beach, FL; and Kathleen Mylan of South Bend, IN.
New Issue of The Responsive Community!
Volume 12, Issue 3, Summer 2002
Up Front
The Truth about Our Liberties -- Richard A. Posner
Slot Machines, Boat Building, and the Future of Philanthropy -- Edward Skloot
Essays
Accommodating Community: Expressive Freedom of Association in a Liberal Pluralist State - William A. Galston
Where should the state draw the line between reinforcing shared norms and granting an individual or group
room to pursue its own ideas of what gives life meaning?
Symposium: Can Postmodernists Condemn Terrorism?
Don't Blame Relativism - Stanley Fish
We can invoke universals all we want, but in the end we're fighting for our moral judgments.
Commentary by Richard Rorty, Benjamin R. Barber, Joshua Cohen, Cass Sunstein, William A. Galston, David
Novak, Simon Blackburn, John Haldane, John D. Caputo, Amitai Etzioni, and Charles W. Collier. Plus: A
rejoinder from Stanley Fish
On a Communitarian Faith - Philip Selznick
Many recognize the strong relationship between religious and communitarian ideas; few are willing to
consider it at length. Now a leading communitarian ventures into this rarely charted territory.
A Nation Worth Defending - Scott Simon
True, the United States has some severe flaws. But even a pacifist can be willing to fight for all that is
right about it and all it may still become.
Departments
The Community Bookshelf
Beyond the New Golden Rule - Jonathan Marks
Review of Autonomy and Order: A Communitarian Anthology, edited by Edward W. Lehman.
The Moral Dimension of the Media
Patriots and Professionals: Journalists as Responsible Citizens - Steven V. Roberts
Libertarians, Authoritarians, Communitarians
Visit The Responsive Community on our web: http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/rcq. If you would like o subscribe,
please let us know at comnet@gwu.edu, or call (800) 245-7460.
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