Progressive Values Stories: Attica on Caring

Written by: Edwin Rutsch on Apr 2, 2008 11:53 AM EDT

 I met Attica at a house party in Oakland, California. Attica talked about the progressive value of caring about our friends, our communities, our families, our country, the world.  I enjoyed hearing her childhood 'funny moment' story of learning about caring from her grandparents.

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."  Leo Buscaglia

"Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community."  Anthony J. D'Angelo

Attica:  Progressive values to me are about people, and that people matter.  People matter foremost.  Of course, people are not the only thing that matters.  Of course, we all need money, food and shelter, education and opportunity.  We need a clean planet on which to live.  Those are things that I feel progressives are interested in. 

(more)

And people who don’t identify themselves as progressives?  If they want those things, then they have progressive values.  I think that’s an important thing, because a lot of people don’t identify themselves as progressive.  A lot of people consider themselves to be conservatives, but they believe in those things too.  And they have progressive values if they believe in that.

Edwin:  Can you take it to an emotional level?  What would you say are the emotions?

Answer:  Emotionally, it’s about doing what’s right.  It’s about a sense of integrity, about being humane and compassionate.  Understanding – being open-minded enough to understand that we all have our own perspectives.  But that that’s okay, and not only just okay, but that we need to have lots of different perspectives.

And just caring.  Caring about our friends, our communities, our families, our country, the world.  I think that’s the emotional level.

Edwin:  Is that a value of yours, caring?

Answer:  Yes.  Absolutely.

Edwin:  And how did you come to that value?  When in your life did that become important to you?

Answer:  I think it’s always been important to me, and I think part of that is how I was raised.  I was raised to some extent to know that it was important to care about people, about important things.  And to take a sense of personal responsibility, not just for myself but for the world I live in. 

Edwin:  Can you remember a moment where you had one of those reflections that it was important?

Answer:  Here’s a funny moment, actually.  When I was a kid, four or five years old, one Christmas I was very much focused on if I was going to get the things I had requested as Christmas gifts.  Or am I going to get some things that I’m not really satisfied with, but they will do?  That’s totally where my focus was.  But Christmas I went down and looked at the tree, and there were three gifts under the tree, with a tag on them with the name of a child I didn’t recognize.  So I asked my grandparents, “who is this kid?”.  And they explained to me that there was a boy that they knew about who had otherwise not had Christmas   gifts.  And they wanted to give him some gifts.  And I was kind of feeling like, “Well, is that your responsibility?  Why does your Christmas budget have to allot extra for some kid I never even heard of before.  Maybe I wouldn’t even like that kid.”

But you know, they continued to explain to me why it was important to them to give these gifts to that kid.  And I thought, wow, that’s really nice of them.  As a kid I couldn’t articulate compassion but I thought, “that’s really nice of them.”  And I still got things that were really fine, but just the fact that they thought it was important enough to reach out to another that we didn’t have any relationship to, just that they cared.  And that was a great example to me
 

More  Resources about Caring.

 From my 100 or so video interviews of people to date, I find the progressive value with the greatest emotional impact is caring. People will often become emotional and tear up when recounting stories about caring, having been cared for, or how they offered care to others. I see it as one of the most under represented progressive values. George Lakoff, from the Rockridge Institute, talks about empathy being the source of the progressive value system.  While caring flows from having empathy for others, in the culture at large, the word people use most often is caring.  I believe it is this energy that conservatives cynically tried to tap into by calling themselves compassionate conservatives. I've heard it said that using the term 'compassionate conservatives' in the 2000 election is what swung centrist voters to vote conservative.

Definition:  caring
- showing a care; "a caring mother"
- feeling and exhibiting concern and empathy for others; "caring friends"
- affectionate: having or displaying warmth or affection; "affectionate children"; "caring parents"; "a fond embrace"; "fond of his  nephew"; "a tender glance"; "a warm embrace"
- lovingness: a loving feeling
     http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Related Words 

compassionate - showing or having compassion; "heard the soft and compassionate voices of women"
warmheartedness, warmth - a warmhearted feeling
love - a strong positive emotion of regard and affection; "his love for his work"; "children need a lot of love" 
 
Some Questions To Ponder:
   What questions would you ask to gain more insights into the nature of caring?
    What are your insights and stories about caring?
    How important is caring to you?
    What is personally the most important progressive value to you?
    Do you have a personal story or anecdote of how you learned some insight into this value?
    How does this progressive value of caring differ from conservative values?
    How has compassionate conservativism  failed?

More Progressive Values Stories at:
 http://progressivespirit.com/InterviewStories/ProgressiveValuesStories.htm

Edwin Rutsch
What Are Progressive Values? Documentary Project
http://ProgressiveSpirit.com
and Study Group
http://www.dfalink.com/group.php?id=2285

 Cross Posted To:
 http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/24706
 http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_edwin_ru_080402_progressive_values_s.htm
 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/2/122523/3791/286/488909

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