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Reflections on Citizenship and Society:Moral Philosophy, Political Economy and Right Action
Introduction
What constitutes good citizenship? That’s a question we don’t ask ourselves often enough and, it seems, lessrecently than historically. There’s a simple answer – don’t always make all your decisions strictly on the basis ofyour own private, narrow and short-term interests. Balance your own advantage with what’s right for your countryand people. Why? And how?In an earlier collection that is part of this series on the “Good Republic” we looked at what it takes for and for ourleadership to have a healthy Public Square. (Heroes, Leaders and Public Morality: Values and a Healthy PublicSquare). We also took a look at the fundamental policies, based on fairly rigorous investigation and analysis, ofrequired in current circumstances (Crisis in the Public Square: Thinking About Futures, Policy and Politics). In thelatter we outlined the economic, foreign and defense and domestic policies that we thought the evidence showedwere best suited to the challenges of the time.In the former we looked at the responsibilities of public leadership, especially on a moral basis. Leaders are notthose who are always right nor those who can persuade the most people to follow them. They are those who actas best they know how and recognize they can make mistakes. They are especially those willing to takeresponsibility for their decisions and, most critically, wade back in when previous decisions don’t work and findsome new way forward.Those are two legs of the stool on which a healthy public square rests – it’s bedrock foundations, as it were. Thethird leg of that stool is a self-responsible citizenry. Those who are willing, like our idealized leadership, to makethe best decisions they can, to make them with more than their own interests in mind, and be willing to changewhen circumstances call for it. But most importantly good citizenship requires you to be open-minded, tolerantand respectful of others and their rights. While simultaneously insisting on the adherence and dedication of all,leaders and citizens, to fundamental principles and standards of behavior.One good reason for doing that of course is that it’s the right thing to do. But the deepest reason is that it works.The Public Square depends on civic institutions and good leadership but more than anything it depends on goodcitizens – those willing to participate actively, in good faith and constructively. And – here’s the return – we areeach utterly dependent on the health of the public square for our own well-being and prosperity. In other wordsthe healthier the public square the better our lives will be, in terms of opportunity, security, and prosperity.Now nobody has the time and resources to become truly informed on every issue. So how does one conductoneself as a good citizen? That’s both easy and hard. We have representatives who we select because wehaven’t the time to attend to everything. If we ask them to do nothing more than always advantage us at theoverall expense of our societies then we will get a nation of log-rollers, trading off one favor for another, and driveourselves to the lowest common denominator.
 
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If, instead, we ask your representatives to work for us and for the public square then life will be better foreveryone. At the end of the day there are four simples for good Citizenship:
1. Be tolerant and respectful of others.2. Make your choices and decisions not for your own sake alone 3. Choose good people to represent you, who you respect and trust, who will tell you the hard and real truths. Not those who tell you what you want to hear.4. Ask you representatives to make their choices by balancing the immediate interests of their constituents with the broader needs of the public square.
Those are rules that anybody can follow at any time in any society, even those where the public square isdysfunctional and broken.
Table of Contents
1. Beyond Glory: a Deep Play About Medal of Honor Winners 32. Retroactive Reflections on the 4th:Where Were You.....? 53. Values & Culture 84. Christmas Spirit and Dinner Miracles 95. And Peace Unto Men....Practicing Spirit 116. Following the Spirit: Leaders, Leadership and the "Wise" Course 127. Practicing the Spirit: Respect, Tolerance and Civitas 148. The Sage of Omaha: Values, Integrity and the World We Want 179. How Much for that Fish in the Window? 1810. 911 Memorial: Fix the Problem Don't Repeat the Crash 1911. From Misconception to Collective Affirmation: the Inaugural Renewal 2112. Reflections & Remembrances: Memorial Day, D-Day, Today 2513. Frontline Lessons Brought Home: Others, Selfs and Manners 2814. McNamara's Legacies and Lessons: Beyond Simple Answers 3115. Sausage Eating Lizards: Sonia, Spooks, Death Panels and the Pope 3416. Lizard-brains vs. the Public Good: Time to Embrace the Suck 3817. Veterans, the Wall & Magic: Fear, Stress & Loathing on the Reform Road 43READINGS1. Values and Attitudes 472. Culture 483. Science & Technology 49
 
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Beyond Glory: a Deep Play About Medal of Honor Winners
http://llinlithgow.com/PtW/2007/08/post.html Posted by dblwyo on August 9, 2007Dan Henninger of the WSJ has a deeply moving review of an even more deeply moving play (which I haven't andwon't be able to see right now...SADLY) which if you get a chance to see it sounds as if you should. The highlyrespected WSJ theater/arts critic Terry Teachout briefly reviews it on his blog though and we reproduce part of ithere: (the show information isBeyond Glory)TT: Southern fried gothic Today's Wall Street Journal drama column contains the first fruit of myrecent travels, a rave review of a rare revival of Tobacco Road by Triad Stage, a company basedin Greensboro, N.C. I also review the New York premiere of Stephen Lang's Beyond Glory and aproduction of Pirates! (an updated version of The Pirates of Penzance) at Paper Mill Playhouse inMillburn, N.J.:It took long enough, but "Beyond Glory," Stephen Lang's fire-eating portrayal ofeight recipients of the Medal of Honor, has finally opened Off Broadway twoyears after I saw it at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. "Mr. Lang's one-man play isno simple-minded piece of flag-waving," I wrote in this space in 2005. "It is anunsparingly direct portrait of men at war, pushed into narrow corners and facedwith hard choices. It is also one of the richest, most complex pieces of acting I'veseen in my theatergoing life." I went back to see it again last week, and I stand byevery word of my original review....Lang's play is based on the bookMedal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Dutyand takes eight of the24 stories contained in as it's source material. And in that spirit here's Henninger's column reproduced in full. Atthe bottom the Online WSJ video interview with him is embedded and a couple of the projects that the NEW/NPRhave organized are referenced, includingOperation Homecoming. The goal of that project was to get great writersto hold workshops for the troops so they could tell their own stories.
Faith and Fiber
The American people may have "Iraq fatigue," but that doesn't mean they've stopped payingattention. A few days ago, the Gallup/USA Today poll reported that, over the past four weeks,belief that the extra troops in Iraq were "making the situation better" rose to 31% from 22%. Thepercentage who say the new troops don't matter dropped to 41% from 51%. Somehow peoplehave found their way to reports that Gen. Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy is toting up gainson the ground. Here in the U.S., any such news a half-world away from the troops in Iraq will beprocessed immediately into the chopped meat of our politics. Example: If the Iraq commitmentturns steadily positive, the Democratic leadership's domestic antiwar strategy may leave theparty's candidates on thin ice as they slip and slide toward the primary season. This ensures thatthe war, the one in the U.S., will be fought with recrimination and accusation. Imagine thesurprise, then, when the most cathartic experience I've had recently in matters of war or peacewas seeing a stage play about . . . war. The play is "Beyond Glory," written and performed byStephen Lang at the Roundabout Theater in New York.In barest outline, Mr. Lang, who originated the role of the accused Marine colonel in the Broadway production of"A Few Good Men," brings to life eight recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor from World War II, Koreaand Vietnam. Without interruption for 80 minutes, Mr. Lang recreates eight different men, who relate the hellishevents that earned them the Medal of Honor. As described recently by Journal theater critic Terry Teachout, thisis "acting of the highest imaginable quality, a performance that will sear its way into your mind and linger thereforever after." An understatement. After seeing "Beyond Glory" the first time a month ago, curiosity sent me to theWeb to learn more. New York theatergoers normally would expect to wait 'til Manhattan turned red for a playabout the Medal of Honor. And as always, you're waiting for the inevitable footlight political lecture. Never came.
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