In this creative and enlightening book, Nancy L. Rosenblum, the Senator Joseph Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University, sheds much light on some very thorny topics in a time of great moral upheaval.
Whereas many progressives expend daily energy criticizing and ridiculing President Trump, his conservative devotees are frantically trying to put out the verbal and policy fires he has started. Meanwhile in neighborhoods across the land, pluralism and inclusion are blooming. Rosenblum finds "a general ethic of friendliness, helpfulness and the requirement to take one another's interests into account."
People seem to be learning more about their rights and obligations as citizens. The neighborhood groups that are gathering donations for a family who lost their home in a fire are not talking in sound bites about abstractions. They are expressing the democracy of everyday life in helpful and healing ways. In an era when so many find it hard or even impossible to trust Washington politicians, the courts, or the police, they cling to the reciprocity (one good turn for another) of neighborliness as a lifeline of hope.
Rosenblum affirms two other positive qualities which are worthy of respect: speaking out and espousing a live and let live philosophy. Good Neighbors: The Democracy of Everyday Life in America abounds with insights into a better way of living!
