The Communitarian Update

Number 54
June 4, 2003

Tell us what you think!
Now that Saddam Hussein’s regime has been toppled, how would you define the scope of U.S. obligations to Iraq? How long should the U.S. stay? What should our goals be?

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 your town and nation, to help us understand your perspective.

Faith-Based: Not Necessarily More Effective
A recent Indiana study found that job training programs run by faith-based organizations do not appear to be more effective than secular programs. The study, conducted by researchers at Indiana University-Purdue University, examined the experiences of 2,830 people in job training programs run by 16 secular and 11 faith-based government-funded organizations across two counties. Researchers found no difference between religious and secular programs in job placement rates or starting wages. Individuals who had gone through the faith-based programs on average worked fewer hours and were less likely to receive health insurance. The findings are based on the first two years of data from a three-year project funded by the Ford Foundation. The study’s principal researcher and others caution that the study’s scope is relatively narrow, and the findings too preliminary to draw broad conclusions about the efficacy of faith-based organizations for all projects (Washington Post, 5/25/03). See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35615-2003May24.html. Additional details at http://ccr.urbancenter.iupui.edu.

Honoring Organ Donors
Tulsa, Oklahoma resident Shelly Brady Koontz has created the "Circle of Life" program, in which a local newspaper will print special symbols on the death notices and obituaries of people who have donated organs and tissues or received transplants during their lives. Brady Koontz was inspired to create the program after her father’s life was saved when he received a donated heart. The Tulsa World will be the first newspaper to participate in the Circle of Life program, which was developed by Brady Koontz's Global Organization for Organ Donation (GOOD). The program aims to honor donors and recipients, create awareness of the issues surrounding organ donation, and inspire more people to become donors (Tulsa World, 6/1/03).

Worried Moms: New Poll on Women and Security
A Time/CNN poll conducted last month found that women - especially mothers - are more worried about national security than men are. Asked whether they were more worried now about national security than before 9/11, 76% of "moms" said yes, vs. 68% of "non-moms" and 59% of men. Moms were also more likely to strongly support strengthening homeland security, and to value improving homeland security over cutting taxes (Time, 5/25/03). For more details see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030602-454487,00.html.

Publications of Interest:
Rights vs. Public Safety after 9/11: America in the Age of Terrorism, edited by Amitai Etzioni and Jason H. Marsh (Rowman & Littlefield, '03)

-Contributors offer diverse, often communitarian perspectives on topics such as the changes in U. S. immigration policy after September 11th, the practical and moral difficulties of racial profiling, the ethical dilemmas of an emergency response to a bioterrorist attack, and the role of the government in promoting national service. Order book at http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0742527549.

A Shared Destiny: Community Effects of Uninsurance (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, '03)

-Report details the ways in which a growing uninsured population negatively impacts a community's economy and the health of its citizens. For more information and to order book see http://www.nap.edu/openbook/0309087260/html/.

What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns by James J. Zogby (Zogby International/The Arab Thought Foundation, Sept. '02)

-Presents results, analysis, and conclusions of a survey of 3,800 Arab adults from eight countries: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. Questions addressed topics such as respondents' values, their political concerns, mood and outlook, self-definition, and how they viewed the world. For more information and to order book, see http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=650.

Articles of Interest

"The Teacher Symposium: Nurturing Civic Lives," Political Science & Politics (APSA, April '03)

-Collection of articles and studies arising out of a project of the American Political Science Association Task Force on Civic Education to bring together scholars in political science and psychology with an interest in "youth civic development."

-Also in this issue, "Civic Education by Mandate: A State By State Analysis" by Karen M. Kedrowski.

-Read articles at http://www.apsanet.org/PS/april03/toc.cfm.

"A Comparison of the Performance of For-Profit and Nonprofit U.S. Psychiatric Inpatient Care Providers Since 1980" by Pauline V. Rosenau and Stephen H. Linder, Psychiatric Services (American Psychiatric Association, Feb. '03).

-Reviewed and synthesized evidence from literature reporting performance differences between private for-profit and private nonprofit psychiatric inpatient care providers in the U.S. since 1980. Found that, in almost all studies, nonprofit providers performed as well or better than for-profit. Read article at http://psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/54/2/183 .

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Welcome new endorsers!

Join other communitarians who have read and endorsed our platform. Visit our web site: http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/rcplatform.html. Recent endorsers include Zbigniew Stanislaw (Roczyny, Krotka, Poland), Dr. Roy Unger (Tallahassee, FL), Elvio Raffaello (Martini Luca, Italy), and Professor Mario Ramos-Reyes (Overland Park, KS).

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