Abstracts

Ask Not: Enhancing the Culture of Volunteerism in America

In the wake of September 11th, Americans became a nation. We began to think about our country as a community, a collective organism to which we each contribute and from which we all benefit. In a time of grief and tragedy, Americans reached out to others for support, and more importantly, offered whatever they could in support of others.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Americans wised up. We learned that the problems of poverty and governmental negligence run thick in the veins of the community, posing a threat to everyone if they remain untreated. Again, in this time of grief and tragedy, Americans worked together, tearing down the dirty remains of New Orleans in hopes of rebuilding a stronger common body.

My Neighbors

Anya Ballinger, My Neighbors

My family's relationship to our neighbors was typical of middle-class America. We treated each other with benign neglect. As I grew older and got a job in the cherry orchards, I began to notice the other neighbors in my life - those who crossed the national border to come here to work. By writing about my localized experience in a small Oregon town, I illustrate the sense of place that is fundamental to a neighborhood experience, and then expand that sense of place to the continent on which national borders have been drawn. I recognize the need for active involvement in our neighborhoods. I believe we have responsibilities toward our neighbors to be good stewards, and to create safe environments for sharing our lives.

International Fixation: A Broader Discussion

Daniel Bullard, Student

Foreign aid has proven to be a complicated and frustrating matter, especially for those who feel a moral responsibility to aid others but lack confidence in aid programs. Whether it is the simple logistics or the sheer scope of the task, individuals can find themselves competing with large degrees of skepticism. My goal in this essay is to examine some of the more practical difficulties that foreign aid presents, with the intention of demonstrating that healthy skepticism is not the same thing as indifference.

Tolstoy and Neighbors: On War and Peace

Mark Conliffe, Professor in WU's Department of German and Russian

In my paper I explore what it might mean in War and Peace to respond meaningfully to neighbors in need. By the end of the book, I contend, Lev Tolstoy seems to propose clearly and simply that a meaningful neighbor is one who helps another at the very moment when the other needs help. He clarifies that a neighbor's actions rarely are grand results of meticulous decisions, theories or plans, but depend more directly on a compulsion to act, a compulsion which develops from one's usual activities and one's own experiences. Indeed, Tolstoy's characters must come to terms with the demands of everyday life before they can think of taking on broader challenges. They must be good neighbors on an immediate and local level, before they can be good neighbors on a grander level. Finally, Tolstoy underscores that good neighborliness derives from respect for the individuality and dignity of the other.

Building a Commonwealth in the 21st Century

Ivo Dimitrov,

If we desire to live in a just and democratic state, we cannot merely content ourselves with the enforcement of order and free elections. I argue that a responsible government must secure the basic wellbeing of its citizens, regardless of their rank in the socio-economic hierarchy. In order to transform the democratic state into a commonwealth, we must espouse a social contract, a reorientation of values, in which the communal welfare is the driving force behind state policy.

Legal and Economic Relationships Between Neighbors.

James Frew, Faculty

Life in a modern democracy goes far beyond traditional local ties to family and local community. It entails living with prices of everyday necessities that are partially determined by supply and demand factors around the world. Thus, modern ‘neighbors' may live in distant geographic locations. This essay considers their social interactions through both legal institutions and economic markets. It explores solutions to two social problems (Native American Land Rights and government subsidies for the production of Corn Ethanol) that transcend free market allocations, in an attempt to find answers that better represent "unprivileged groups." Since economically powerful groups are also politically powerful, however, the governmental process does not automatically result in more equitable arrangements. Moreover, some social problems are sufficiently complex that the solution to parts of the problem creates unintended negative side effects in other areas. This turns out to be true in the case of U.S. ethanol production, which has raised the price of food enough to produce international demonstrations against it.

The Difference Between Can and Should: Protection and Exercise of Free Speech in a Democracy

Albert Furtwangler, Independent Scholar

In the late 1940s my parents managed a small apartment building in Seattle, and my mother kept a record of repairs, complaints, and expenses for the owner. Two of her small daybooks from that time also record daily encounters with other tenants, close neighbors, family members, shopkeepers, and weekend companions. Her brief lines illustrate many neighborly connections and habits of mind. I present these passages by tracing overlapping layers or concentric rings of my parents' outreach to the world. I also relate them to my own adult habits in other settings, and discuss two related strains in literary works I have taught: a long tradition of nostalgia for a lost childhood scene and a focus on isolated individuals in many modern stories.

Do I want to be your neighbor? An Essay in Three Parts.

David S. Gutterman, Assistant Professor of Politics, Associate Director of the Center for Religion, Law and Democracy

Being a good neighbor is hard. Proximate and distant, stranger and friend, self and other: we are pulled to consider the desires of those close to us and the needs of those far away. Challenged to respond to these responsibilities we can seek to retreat to a private world, resentful of those who might impinge on our freedom of expression, our time, our resources. In this essay, I explore questions posed by life in the contemporary United States, Biblical injunctions, and theories of cosmopolitanism to try to understand the concept of "neighbor" and the responsibilities entailed by that category.

The Ivory Tower: An Exploration of University-Community Relationships

Nicholas Robinson, Politics Major

We live in a divided world. We separate ourselves from others along fault lines as diverse as ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, class, sexual orientation, and social status, but we can also bridge interpersonal divides by focusing on what brings us together. Willamette University is a community unto itself situated in the context of a larger, different community. Too often, the students, faculty, and administration that comprise the "Willamette family" choose to emphasize the differences that separate us from our larger community than the commonalities that bind us together. While the university has already taken many important steps towards encouraging engagement with the community, I argue for a more inclusive, multifaceted approach. I advocate changes in university policies, but emphasize the importance of forging interpersonal relationships. People, not institutions,