Fairness

But, what do you think? Does “fairness” have any place in the panoply of American character strengths? Kindness is the first American strength. As we discussed yesterday, a global study finds America unique among 54 nations in placing kindness at the very top of a list of 24 character strengths.

What’s next on the list? You might be surprised to learn that fairness is the second most important character strength. Fairness, according to the researchers who conducted the global survey, is part of the virtue of justice. It refers to treating everyone the same according to standards of justice and fairness.

Americans are not alone in their emphasis on fairness. Many other nations in the 54-nation survey gave fairness the number one or two spot, such as Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Belgium Hungry, and Mexico. Like kindness, fairness is consistent with the core values of respect for others and equality of opportunities—values we’ve discussed before.

As this week’s series continues, we’ll discuss some additional character strengths that Americans hold dear—and then the character strengths that are the weakest among Americans. Stay tuned. You might be surprised! But, today, please add a comment below …

Do you see fairness as a core part of American character?

Do you see fairness in our economic system?

Is there a clash between the two?

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

SEARCHING FOR THE AMERICAN CHARACTER? We’re all searching. The quest to define “our” character is a major part of American culture. This flag patch (above) is the one that Peter Fonda wore on the back of his jacket in ‘Easy Rider.’ The patch sold at auction for $90,000 in 2007. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

What is a character strength?
It’s a type of virtue that a person—or a culture—can hold to a greater or lesser degree. Defining and strengthening our national character has been a central theme in American life and culture since the founding of our nation centuries ago.
Right now, the goal of strengthening American character is a major theme on the campaign trail. Politicians cite the decline of American character and values as the culprits behind many social and economic problems. But how true is it?

We know from research I’ve reported before on ourValues.org that Americans share a set of core American values. These values haven’t been lost. But, how about American character strengths?

We know the answer to these questions from a global survey of character strengths reported by psychologists Nansoon Park, Chris Peterson, and Martin Seligman. These researchers developed a survey of 24 strengths that represent six universal virtues: wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence. Over 100,000 people from 54 nations took the survey, including Americans in all 50 states.

The top character strength in America is: kindness. It’s one of the strengths associated with the virtue of humanity—interpersonal strengths that involve helping, taking core of, and befriending others.

Are you surprised? What surprised me was that kindness was not the top strength anywhere else. Among the 54 nations included in the survey, it was only in America that kindness took the top spot.

The importance of kindness is consistent with the core values of respect and concern for others—values we’ve discussed before. This week we’ll discuss character strengths that Americans hold in abundance—and some that rank among our weakest. Today, consider kindness, and tell us what you think …

Do you see kindness as a prevalent character strength in America?

What are strengths do you see?

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

W

We close this week with further proof of the diverse reactions that strong images may summon. The “ethnically tiled flag image” (shown above) has been floating around the internet for more than a year. In our search for this image’s origins online, we found the tiled flag showing up in Web posts on nearly every attitude toward America’s diversity. in our Web searching, we discovered …

Celebrating Diversity: The Next Great Generation (TNGG) website showcases work by young journalists. The tiled flag image was used by TNGG to illustrate an article with a positive attitude toward our nation’s growing ethnic diversity.

Angry at Immigrants: However, the same flag showed up in an angry online rant, Rebirth of America, by a supporter of Tea Party Patriots. This time, the image was captioned: “Where has America gone?” The writer griped that immigrants only come here to sponge off our nation’s resources.

Proud of Our Diversity: A young African-American woman who likes to blog about travel and global culture chose the same image for a column proudly saluting America’s diversity, especially when compared with some other nations’ homogenous populations.

An Immigrant’s Viewpoint: A blogger known as A French Lady, who moved from France to the American South, writes in French for other French readers. She chose the flag image for a post that begins, “Ce que j’aime le plus dans mon pays d’adoption c’est sa mixité.” (In English, “What I like most about my adopted country is its diversity.”)

New Americans Bring New Problems: A University of Oregon Law School symposium, grappling with emerging issues in immigration law, also chose this flag image. Immigration is posing difficult legal challenges that won’t go away, the symposium announcement indicated.

Real People I Talked to Face to Face: I asked participants in a new small-group dialog on Civil Discourse about this image. Some said: patriotic, proud, happy, artistic, beauty, diversity. Others said, clutter, conflict, overcrowded, sad.

You may see this tiled flag 1 way, but others see it in other ways …

What do you see in the tiled flag?

What do you think of the other images this week?

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

CLICK the image to visit the Parachute website.Y

At right, there’s an image of the mosaic maple leaf graphic. What’s your reaction? How does it compare to the salad bowl image we looked at yesterday?

This image is part of the official Canadian Olympic Team Brand. According to the designer, it is “based on the geometry of the maple leaf and inspired by Canadian artwork, iconography, the tradition of quilting, and Canadian athletes’ remarkable performance and pride. The tones are based on the five colours of the Olympic Rings, which represent the flags of our world. The extended palette infuses colours from Canadian landscapes. The whole, vibrant and dynamic, represents Canada’s cultural mosaic and the energy of the Canadian Olympic Team.”

Both Canada and America are multi-ethnic societies. A key difference is that multiculturalism is an official policy of the Canadian government, while it is not here. For example, Canada has an official bilingual policy. All signage in Canada appears in English and French.

Do you prefer mosaic or salad to represent America?

Do other images come to mind?

Got another image to share? Add a comment and include the link!

Join us again tomorrow—and all week—as we consider images of America.

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

Here’s our third image of America:

This salad sculpture was created in 2010 by the Art Honor Society and students of Dumont High School, New Jersey, as part of the YWCA’s annual “Stand Against Racism” movement. In the salad-makers’ words, we “created a large ‘multicultural origami salad’ to represent our society. In a ‘salad’ all the ingredients keep their individual characteristics while being held together in one bowl. Our American society is truly a ‘multicultural salad’.”

The YWCA’s “Stand Against Racism” has the “goal of bringing people together from all walks of life—across the country—to raise awareness that racism still exists.”  The 2012 event will take place on April 27. (You can view a nationwide list of participating YWCAs here.)

Does the “salad bowl” represent your vision of America?

What do you think of the images we’re considering this week?

Is there an image you wish we would include?

Tomorrow: Another image of cultural unity.
Join us again tomorrow—and all week—as we consider images of America.

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

Take a close look at this image.

This is a 2009 photo of the staff and students at the U.S. Navy’s Center for Information Dominance Corry Station. This technical training center is located near Pensacola, Florida. The staff and students are participating in morning colors on Cultural Diversity Day, a time when they learned about cultures around the world.

Just like the poster of Israel Zangwill’s The Melting Pot we examined yesterday, this group photo represents a form of cultural mixing. Ever since 1948, when Harry Truman signed an executive order integrating the armed forces, the U.S. military has made great strikes in racial and ethnic integration, and more recently, the integration of men and women—as you can see in this modern image.

Here are some of the one-word reactions to this image that were evoked in the small-group dialog early this week: youth, patriotism, attention, idealism, naivety. A few veterans were participants in the dialog, and they had a strong patriotic reaction to the image.

Did you have a similar reaction to this image?

Is it a modern-day version of The Melting Pot?

Join us again tomorrow—and all week—as we consider images of America.

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

B

Do you agree?
Is the Super Bowl a cultural unifier?
And, what about the image at right?
What’s your first reaction?

This image portrays another, much earlier, form of cultural unification. It’s a poster for The Melting Pot, a play by Israel Zangwill that debuted to rave reviews in 1909. The drama borrows from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy about star-crossed lovers from two warring families. Zangwill’s play is set in New York City—a sort of West Side Story before its time—where the Romeo figure (named David in the play) is a Russian Jew who escaped an infamously brutal pogrom and the Juliet character (named Vera) is a Christian settlement worker, also a Russian immigrant. When “Romeo” learns that “Juliet’s” father directed the very pogroms he escaped, they are torn apart. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragedy, however, The Melting Pot has a happy American ending—the lovers reconcile.

The idea of a cultural smelting pot, crucible, or melting pot can be traced back at least to the 18th century, but Zangwill’s play popularized the idea of America as a place where differences were dissolved into a cultural whole. Here are some of the thoughts about this Melting Pot image from a small-group dialog I hosted yesterday.

Read the following responses—and share one of yours below …

This image seems “outdated” because we are more of a “spicy stew” now than a bland “cream soup.” We embrace people who come from different places. Perhaps a better image now would be “many pots” rather than a single melting pot. Yet “we still have common values.” “The drama now is how to maintain these values” and respect differences. “I grew up in the ’50s and I miss those times—when we felt that we were a melting pot.”

Tomorrow: Another image of cultural unity, a photograph taken in 2009.
Join us again tomorrow—and all week—as we consider images of America.

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

A

Romney’s rise—and the rising prominence of Mormons in popular culture—has placed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the spotlight. Using data from the Pew Research Center, this week we’ve examined Mormons’ political beliefs, their views of life in America, the LDS church as a Christian faith, and issues of gender equality in Christianity writ large.

The focus on Mormons is the most recent example of a perennial question in American history: How much religious diversity is a good thing? To what extent should our personal religious beliefs dictate our responses to problems, decisions, and challenges? How far does religious acceptance go?

On Thursday, President Obama addressed these issues in his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., an annual event held on the first Thursday of February. Traditionally, the president is one of the featured speakers. Yesterday, he said, in part: “We know that part of living in a pluralistic society means that our personal religious beliefs alone can’t dictate our response to every challenge we face. But in my moments of prayer, I’m reminded that faith and values play an enormous role in motivating us to solve some of our most urgent problems, in keeping us going when we suffer setbacks, and opening our minds and our hearts to the needs of others.”

Obama added: “We can’t leave our values at the door. If we leave our values at the door, we abandon much of the moral glue that has held our nation together for centuries, and allowed us to become somewhat more perfect a union.”

What are those values? Obama cited several, including fairness (Wall Street must play by the same rules as Main Street), shared responsibility, the moral responsibility of those with more to give more, equal opportunities for all, caring for the poor and those on the margins of society, and treating others as you want to be treated.

He concluded: “These values are old. They can be found in many denominations and many faiths, among many believers and among many non-believers. And they are values that have always made this country great—when we live up to them; when we don’t just give lip service to them; when we don’t just talk about them one day a year.”

Are the values the president mentioned still important in America?

Do we just give them lip service?

Can common values unite us?

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

A Snapshot of Mormon Political Pride: Most are conservative Americans who tend to support the GOP. Image in public domain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.T

Today, look at Mormons’ political beliefs.

Like any group in America, there are variations and tendencies in the political beliefs of Mormons. Two-thirds of Mormons say they are conservatives, based on the Pew Research Center survey of Mormons on America. Twenty-two percent are moderates, with only 8% saying they are politically liberal. Mormons are generally more conservative than the American public as a whole, where only 37% say they are conservative, the same percentage are moderate, and 22% identify as liberals.

Mormons and white evangelical Protestants share similar political ideologies. Both groups are more conservative than the general population. But there are obvious religious differences. Only a minority of white evangelical Protestants believe Mormons are Christians, as we discussed Tuesday. This stands in sharp contrast to the large majorities of mainline Protestants and white Catholics who say Mormons are Christians.

Given that Mormons tend to be politically conservative, it isn’t surprising to learn that three-quarters (74%) identify as Republican or lean that way. This tendency is stronger for men than women, Pew reports, with 81% of Mormon men identifying with or leaning Republican, compared to 67% of Mormon women.

Mormons are a small minority within the overall population, but they are the strongest supporters of the Republican Party, compared to Protestants, Catholics, and the unaffiliated. Their closest rivals in levels of support are white evangelicals.

There are wider differences of opinion among Mormons when it comes to some controversial issues. For example, 45% of Mormons say “immigrants strengthen our country because of their hard work and talents” while 41% say “immigrants are a burden on our country because they take our jobs, housing, and healthcare.”

Do these facts about political attitudes surprise you?

Or confirm your political assumptions?

How about the split on immigration? What do you think?

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.

R

Today, let’s consider a provocative critique of the church in a New York Times (NYT) online posting of viewpoints about Romney and his church. One of the five commentaries was written by Sally Denton, a noted investigative journalist, author, and critic of the LDS church. She has won awards for her investigations of troubling chapters in American Western history.

Denton’s NYT commentary called the LDS church, according to her headline, “A Male-Dominated World.” We all should question Romney as a candidate, Denton told readers, because “male authoritarianism” is the church’s “most distinctive characteristic.” You can read Denton’s entire commentary at the NYT site via the link above. But, her central charge is: “The controversial and secretive religion is a multibillion-dollar business empire ruled by a stern patriarchal gerontocracy.”

What’s fascinating about Denton’s claim is this: That same charge has frequently been made against Catholic leaders and the Vatican. The same criticism could be made of Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well. Right or wrong, such a claim is no small matter. The Catholic and Orthodox churches worldwide represent two thirds of all Christians. In fact, looking beyond Christianity, the same charge has been laid at the doorstep of all the major world religions.

On Tuesday, based on Pew data, we looked at changing attitudes about whether Mormons are Christians. As we noted in that story, attitudes toward the church appear to be changing among some segments of the population. American attitudes about various religious groups keep evolving. As recently as half a century ago in the U.S., criticisms were routinely made of Catholic candidates about the secretive and male-dominated nature of their church. There still are critiques of some individual Catholic politicians about their voting records on issues related to women’s rights.

Here’s a provocative question concerning Denton’s charge against Mormons:

Is Denton’s criticism really a critique of the majority of Christianity?

Is the criticism really a broad indictment of inequality in world religions?

How do you balance faith and gender equality?

PLEASE, ADD A COMMENT BELOW
AND CLICK ON the “Now You Can Find Us on Facebook” link in the right-hand column.

Originally published at www.OurValues.org, an online experiment in civil dialogue.