The Wall Street Journalcontained an interesting article by Charles Murray.  As a development strategist, I am constantly looking for new ideas to bring into my Fresh Thinking concept, and articles like Murray’s sometimes strike a chord. In “The New American Divide,” Murray talks about the degradation of the American way of life over the past 50 years. That sweeping phrase, the American way of life, used to be quite common. In the old Superman comics and TV shows, the Man of Steel fought for “truth, justice, and the American way.” Everyone once knew what it meant.

According to Murray, the American way of life was “a civic culture that swept an extremely large proportion of Americans of all classes into its embrace. It was a culture encompassing shared experiences of daily life and shared assumptions about central American values involving marriage, honesty, hard work and religiosity.” Murray argues that our shared civic culture has been sundered, and that we are now a nation of different classes with different sets of education standards and work ethics in his just released  book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.

Whenever I read articles about the broader picture of life across America, I am always struck by how fortunate we are to live here in the Hudson River Valley. In some parts of the country, education and stature and super ZIP codes create insular cultures that seem to focus on exclusion. In contrast, our rich quality of life in the Hudson River Valley is one of inclusion.  To a large degree, I think that is because of the wonderful not for profit organizations we have and support. NPOs are inclusive in nature because they reach out to everyone, in all walks of life, to foster a culture of giving and caring. They tie different communities together by promoting a shared set of values in every region of the country.

I urge everyone to engage with our local not for profit organizations and local for profit businesses that uphold our traditional American values. In this age of multi-media tasking, electronic social media and online shopping, it is easy to become disconnected from the sense of community that makes our country great. We need to foster growth in our own neighborhoods and cities and regions, and we need to strengthen the linkages between our communities and other communities through the shared values of the NPOs we support!

One not for profit at a time, that is the American way!