Won’t you be my neighbor?

June 23-24, The New York Times, The Washington Post

The search for common ground is a global endeavor.  Its motivation is to understand the differences evident on all levels of society – from personal to local, national to international – and embrace what we have in common.  We, as Americans, must be wary of projecting our ideas about freedom, cooperation, and division onto conflicts abroad (see Jakob de Roover’s commentary, cited on my June 11 post about India’s caste system).  Thus, while it is easy to deplore conflicts in the Middle East, for example, it is often hard to find commonalities with people as close as our neighbors.

This is the crux of the June 23 New York Times op-ed “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”  Summarizing the sense of alienation Americans have from one another, Peter Lovenheim writes, “There’s talk today about how as a society we’ve become fragmented by ethnicity, income, city versus suburb, red state versus blue. But we also divide ourselves with invisible dotted lines. I’m talking about…property lines.”

The author makes a point to buck that trend, befriending his 81-year-old neighbor, a widower named Lou.  However, is this example an exception to the rule?  Lovenheim interestingly brings up Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone,” which details the waning of American civil society.  Are our personal divisions contributing to greater, national cleavages? 

Looking at our society’s traditional divisions, there is mixed evidence.  According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, three in ten Americans still harbor racial prejudices. 

But, at the same time, new statistics from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey indicate that nearly three out of four Americans believe many faiths other than their own can lead to salvation. 

Numbers aside, the desire and impetus for greater cooperation and increased understanding do exist in America.  Look at my June 19 and June 24 posts on bipartisanship, or June 18’s about creating mutual understanding in gang communities.  Both McCain and Obama promise bipartisan cooperation.  At least rhetorically, it would seem we are on the precipice of coming together in unprecedented ways.  Perhaps it will be new media that pushes us over the edge –YouTube has already been a notable contributor to conversation across borders and oceans.

And, of course, there is Mr. Lovenheim.  He concludes, “Our political leaders speak of crossing party lines to achieve greater unity. Maybe we should all cross the invisible lines between our homes and achieve greater unity in the places we live.”  Indeed, if we can engage one another on a human level, all the greater walls we put up – be they state, national, or global – can fall.

This is not just an American phenomenon.  This is the idea behind the search for common ground everywhere.