Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 16:10:34 PM EDT
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| Earlier this week I saw a production of American Document, a collaboration between the Martha Graham Dance Company, and the SITI Theatre Company.Blending movement and narrative, the show explored questions of what it means to be an American.
Midway through the performance, one of the characters asserts that one element of American identity is a shared set of ‘American values’—which got me thinking: Is there really a set of values that all Americans have in common?
This is something we’ve been talking a lot about at the office these days, especially in light of recent public repartee between JFSJ and Glenn Beck. (If you haven’t been following, check our website for full details, and to join our campaign for the common good.) I’m all for healthy debate, for discussions that may lead me to new perspectives. Ultimately, there are many ways for America to live out and express the values on which we were founded: justice, freedom, equality, and consanguinity (yes, that is actually a word used in the Declaration of Independence, expressing our founders’ belief in the interconnectedness of human beings.) |
| Shuli Passow :: As American As...Nazi Death Camps? |
| We may disagree—across or within political parties— about the best ways to achieve the outcomes we want to see. But if our fundamental values are the same, we can stand on common ground to debate with integrity the right course of action.
Unfortunately, our debate with Beck is deeper than one about strategies or tactics. Instead, this is a debate of underlying values and of conflicting world views: one that leads to a country where people see their fates as intertwined with one another and thus believe in and work towards a common good, and another that leads to a culture of individualism in which people think and work only for themselves. Beck embraces the latter values, stating that working for the common good ‘leads to death camps. At stake in this debate is not one piece of legislation, or funding for a new program. At stake is a fundamental vision for this country and what it stands for.
As I walked out of the theatre on Tuesday night, I asked myself what my grandparents, immigrants to this country after the Holocaust, would have articulated as American values. Based on the way they lived their lives, my guess is that they would have listed such ideals as justice, education, and community. Having evaded Nazi death camps, they of all people would know that the only way to live one’s life is with care and responsibility for the common good. |
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