A Response to the Terrorist Assault on our Communities

By David Palmer

Much of America’s unparalleled success comes from the strength of its communities, and today, perhaps more than ever, they are under attack. The latest assault, resulting in 14 deaths, occurred in San Bernadino, California on December 2. It was carried out by terrorists representing the “radicalized” wing of the Muslim faith. Over the past year, there have been 14 attacks in communities which were associated with racial and political divisions, mental illness and religious differences. Our communities are vitally important, a fact that has been proven time and again, and we must respond to the threat. But how?

We have two enemies: ISIS plus our own indifference fueled in part by the opportunity to live in an alternative “virtual” community provided by Facebook and other social media, electronic games, YouTube and other high tech miracles. We can create our own realities or, for seniors, revisit old realities like Basie and Sinatra in concert in 1965, Lucy stomping grapes in I love Lucy and Alan Ladd beating Jack Palance to the draw in Shane. Who needs anyone else? The fact is, we do. We need God and we need each other.

Enemies of America have recognized in the past that our strength as a nation is based on the strength of our communities. Adolph Hitler knew it, and in the 1930’s created the Friends of New Germany to infiltrate American cities, gather information and promote the Nazi worldview. The Japanese did their own research in the Pacific and on December 7, 1941 attacked America’s vulnerable 7^th fleet at Pearl Harbor. Both Japan and Germany declared war on the United States.

Roosevelt Speaks

Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech that day rallied the nation’s citizens in all our cities and towns. He said, in part: “Always will our nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. And no matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.” It took America and its allies a little less than five years and half a million American lives to defeat Germany, Japan and Italy, a stunning victory despite the tragic loss of life, and it ushered in a period of prosperity that lasted for decades. But by the year 2000, things were looking less rosy. And it is getting worse.  Today, the federal government, lacking strong leadership, does not appear to be up to the challenge and neither do many of our communities, which are beset by lawlessness, racial divides, weak leadership and a dwindling faith in God.

The state of our communities is the subject of the book, “Bowling Alone. The collapse and revival of the American Community” by Robert D. Putnam. It was published in 2001 just before the fall of the Twin Towers in NYC and it, correctly I believe, identifies America’s central problem, the disconnect among our citizens, our boiling political and racial divisions and our addictions to alcohol and other drugs.

“Americans need to reconnect with one another,” Putnam says, “and a change in bowling from a major social event to a loner sport is an apt metaphor for the growing sense of alienation that is upon us.” There are two fundamental truths about us that author Putnam reminds us we must cultivate more aggressively–our community spirit and our faith in God—if we are to regain our footing. To that I would add that there is one important obstacle we must overcome which is our undeniable and growing enslavement to alcohol and other drugs. It is another way we seek to create an alternative reality more to our liking.

Our addictions, another way to create an alternative reality, are undermining families and communities at an estimated annual cost, some estimate, of a trillion dollars a year (see High Society by Joseph A. Califano Jr.). They, too, can be addressed most effectively using local resources at the community level. Dr. John Townsend, a clinical psychologist, divinity school graduate, and author, put the matter of defeating drugs this way at a Celebrate Recovery conference at California’s Saddleback Church nearly a decade ago, and it echoed Putnam’s themes. “Recovery, Townsend says, is not something you do by yourself. It’s all about relationships—both divine and human. As time goes by, newcomers give up trying to be stronger and more disciplined on their own, and they come to Celebrate Recovery and other 12 Step meetings because they ‘connect.’ They come because they find light, and they live in darkness.”

Forming a Roundtable

At One Day at a Time (ODAT), a non-profit company in its eleventh year of operation, we are beginning to organize a faith-based “Roundtable” made up of perhaps a dozen individuals with a special interest in the subject of addiction and recovery. They will represent hospitals (dealing with both mental health and drug addiction problems), community-focused and entrepreneurial Christian churches, traditional 12 step programs, schools and other institutions. Their focus will be on reducing the demand for alcohol and other drugs by promoting recovery while maintaining adequate law enforcement protection to limit the supply.

As we contemplate the development of our roundtable, we will be mindful of the lessons of ‘Bowling Alone.” Here are 20 statements, taken from the book we believe are especially relevant:

1. “Faith communities, in which people worship together, are the single most important repository of social capital in America. Church attendance correlates highly with happiness (as do marriage and volunteering)
2. Affluence and education are insufficient to prevent collective tragedy.
3. The revitalization of evangelical religion is a major trend in the last half of the 20^th century.
4. Religious involvement is an especially strong predictor of volunteering and philanthropy. They give money and they volunteer.
5. Alcoholics Anonymous helped recast alcoholism as a social problem needing social and spiritual remedies.
6. Bowling: “even while they bowl together, they are watching alone”
7. TV dampens our interactions with each other and our communities. It is the cause of lower community involvement.
8. Community, communion and communications. “Social capital” is about networks           
9. America’s new “volunteers” are 60 and over.
10. “We are currently engaged in a silent withdrawal from social intercourse.”
11. Religious conservatives have created the largest best-organized grass roots social movement of the last quarter century.
12. Henry Ward Beecher’s advice a century ago to multiply picnics is not entirely ridiculous today. We should do this ironically, not because it will be good for American-though it will be-but because it will be good for us. 
13. Question. How do we make the Internet part of the solution?
14. We desperately need an era of civic inventiveness to create a renewed set of institutions. Like the Boy Scouts over a century ago.
15. Today we are more educated but less engaged—we are experiencing a slump in social capital and civic engagement.
16. Employed people are more active civically and socially
17. The car and the commute are bad for community life. Sprawl contributes to civic disengagement.
18. TV viewer casualties include religious, sports and organization participation, social visiting and shopping parties.
19. My fate depends on not only whether I study, stay off drugs, go to church but also on whether my neighbors do those things.
20. Urbanization, industrialization and immigration have undermined neighborliness.

We close with one off many positive reviews: “Putnam’s argument deserves to be seriously considered by everyone interested in our social well being. Each of us should read Bowling Alone alone. And then discuss it together.” — William Kristol, editor and publisher. The Weekly Standard