Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 21:30:35 -0500
From: Mahmud Farooque <mfarooqu@gmu.edu> 

Subject: Building Bridges

Part I: Introduction Building Bridges: An Exploration in Divisions, Separations and Unity

Introduction:

While the goal of building bridges between individuals remains laudable by any measure, as a general proposition it may be difficult, if not impossible to attain. To begin, the idea of a bridge implicitly assumes that there is a gap somewhere. Filling in the gap would thus be equivalent to building a bridge. An oversight in that assumption is that gaps are only one source of a division. Sometimes there are walls--natural or artificial; needed and unneeded; good and bad; porous and nonporous; real and virtual--where a bridge may be of little utility. Sometimes the gaps itself are so enormous that it is better to simply fly over or sail across. Sometimes it is not the distance but the cost that is the deterrent. And finally, sometimes the bridge itself may be too narrow or too unreliable for anyone to crossover to the other side.

In an age that has been labeled by some as the "era of diminished expectations" we must therefore be prepared to expect the various pitfalls that would come in our efforts to building bridges between individuals of varied background, age, experience, interest, allegiance, irrespective of a shared heritage. Towards that end, I seek to explore here, in parts, the lessons I have gathered through my Internet discourses in the past three years and community activism of several years prior. Excepting the concluding section each part will follow a simple format. It will propose a theory and examine it against our contemporary experience.

Few notes of caution, before I begin. First, any exploration that is based on learning is an incomplete one because, by definition, learning is a continuous process. Hence, this is to be taken as work in progress that seeks to ask more than to answer. Second, observations on patterns of human behavior are not to be mistaken as scientific fact. Some patterns are more applicable than others and one must expect exceptions. Third and finally, these explorations could be a bit academic in nature and may not be of general interest. Indiscriminate use of the delete key is strongly recommended when the following subject headers are encountered.

Part II: A Clash of Paradigms, Not Reason: Exploring the Ideological Divide
Part III: When a Part Separates from the Whole: Exploring the Cultural Divide
Part IV: Culture of Poverty meets the Culture of Low Trust: Exploring the Social Divide
Part V: Concluding Thoughts: Wisdom to Accept the Difference

[ ...Continued in Part II]