[ti:Are America’s Communities Disappearing?]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]"Won't you be my neighbor?"
[00:01.72]is a famous song from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,
[00:05.76]a popular children's television show.
[00:09.68]The show, broadcast for 31 years ending in 2001,
[00:15.88]sought to teach American children the importance
[00:20.60]of kindness and understanding towards others.
[00:25.52]The idea was that strong communities
[00:28.96]need strong relationships between the people in them.
[00:34.60]But fewer and fewer Americans seem to know their neighbors
[00:39.64]and that may be eroding America's communities.
[00:45.32]Marc Dunkelman wrote a book called "The Vanishing Neighbor."
[00:50.32]In it, he examined how American communities have changed over time.
[00:57.80]Dunkelman said most Americans have three levels of relationships:
[01:04.20]The inner circle includes family and close friends.
[01:09.52]The middle circle is more casual relationships.
[01:14.56]People in this circle include neighbors and people in community groups.
[01:19.96]The outer circle includes people who live far away
[01:25.28]but share a common interest.
[01:27.80]Today, people in outer circles are easily found
[01:33.24]through social media and other forms of technology.
[01:38.32]In his book, Dunkelman argued that people spend most of their time
[01:43.84]and attention on the inner and outer circles.
[01:48.28]But, he said the middle-circle is necessary to strengthening local communities.
[01:55.72]Relationships with neighbors are important for debate,
[02:00.04]hearing different ideas and finding compromise.
[02:05.68]Brad Birzer is a professor of history at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
[02:12.52]He said Americans are now more connected
[02:16.36]with national communities than with local communities.
[02:20.80]"We used to think of the community good as a local thing,
[02:26.20]and now we tend to think of it as the whole country," he said.
[02:31.76]Americans used to have more middle-circle relationships.
[02:36.64]Face-to-face interaction was unavoidable without cell phones or the internet.
[02:43.76]People also felt more of an obligation to join community organizations.
[02:51.08]Dunkelman argues that modern life
[02:53.88]has made middle-circle relationships less important.
[02:58.44]He said globalization, education
[03:02.92]and more women in the workforce
[03:06.00]have resulted in fewer middle-circle interactions.
[03:10.64]He said the weakening of communities
[03:14.20]has led to political divisions in America.
[03:18.84]Americans now have less interaction with others
[03:23.36]who hold different political opinions.
[03:27.08]Less interaction with people who voted for the opposite party means
[03:32.88]"you begin to really be alienated from people
[03:36.96]who voted for the other side," Dunkelman said.
[03:41.96]There are some good results from this change in personal interaction, however.
[03:48.12]It has become harder for hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan
[03:53.40]to organize at the local level.
[03:57.24]Doctors and health experts all over the world
[04:01.20]have been able to collaborate to deal with the coronavirus health crisis.
[04:08.12]However, Americans may be losing what it means to be a good neighbor,
[04:13.92]as Fred Rogers of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" taught.
[04:20.00]Today, society's problems like homelessness or poverty
[04:25.24]are not seen as local problems to solve, but national problems.
[04:31.52]Doing good for a neighbor is healthy "not just for our neighbor,
[04:37.28]but for ourselves as well," Dunkelman said.
[04:41.40]Learning how to be a good citizen can be lost,
[04:45.80]he said, "when we defer the problem to somebody else."
[04:52.24]I'm Caty Weaver. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM