Rebekah Nathan in "Community and Term Paper

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First, an individual must have a secure, local identity, and only then he or she can move out into the wider community and make a contribution. This is the importance of local affiliation -- it gives am emotional security to individuals, and enables them to feel recognized for who they 'truly' are as people.

This is also why it is critical that local and nationalist organization are not be shunned or feared, despite the rhetoric of 'American values,' and that we are all 'the same.' We cannot do away with community, and the common, human, personal need for local, regional, and national ties. Rather these local organizations should be appreciated for the gifts they give to their participants, and to the larger world. The danger of a false cosmopolitanism is that it can become another word for the melting pot, or the shaking off of any sense of heritage or identity. Today there is great danger posed by atomization, rampant individualism, and the younger generation's disconnection from any responsibilities to others at all. Cosmopolitanism is just another false word for the 'melting pot' when someone who identifies as a citizen of the world sees him or herself as really having no responsibility to others at all -- he or she is, in striving to be all things, really nothing, no ties to place, religion, family, or home.

Cosmopolitanism as defined by Kwame Anthony Appiah, however, means recognizing one's cosmopolitan duties and engaging in political action on the local level, while examining how local issues can impact the national and international agenda. Still, despite Appaiah's enthusiasm for internationalism, true charity must begin at home. This is not to say that the greater 'concectedness' provided by worldwide media such as the Internet does not have its value. The Internet has enabled people in remote locations to learn more about life, and lives, all over the world, that they would never have known about had they not become part of the world virtual community.

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The Internet allows individuals to communicate their personal lives and struggles through blogs, and enables someone living in Bangladesh to humanize his or her existence for someone living in Ohio. The personalization and one-on-one connection conveyed by local community organizations can take place in the virtual space as well as the real world.

However, connecting on the Internet cannot be a replacement for real-world, local communities. It must spawn actions in practice. Caring and reading about the victims of the tsunami in East Asia means little unless the person reading about it online gets up after staring at the computer, and resolves to raise funds to help the victims. Fund-raising, humanizing the victims and activism at the local level must translate into greater awareness of the national level problems. Even a person who struggles with local politics, such as school funding for his or her children, and realizes that local civic engagement cannot solve the problem alone, often needs that first 'step' of personal investment before developing a real, deep concern about national issues.

Perhaps the greatest barrier Americans must overcome is the deep distrust Americans have of 'belonging' at all in a way that transcends the individual. 'Don't tread on me and the importance of privacy is virtually sacrosanct in American culture. Rebekah Nathan also observes that overcoming psychological barriers to becoming a part of a community in and a feeling of entrapment, rather than an over-identification with a national or religious group is one of the most insurmountable barriers university officials have faced. This is also true on the wider, national level, where identifying as a hyphenated American can seem suspect -- more suspect than using that sense of hyphenation as a springboard to connecting with and helping others all over the world......

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