In the post below I talked about the importance of a sense of community for we tribal human beings. I would like to share some personnel experiences. I have spent a great deal of time in central and eastern Oregon and believe me most of the area east of the Cascades is rural. The people there are conservative but of a libertarian strain. They grow marijuana for their own consumption and go to church but not for spiritual reason so much as social/ community reasons. It truly is a community. They welcomed this hippie from west of the cascades and let me participate in their lives. Some of the best years of my life were spent east of the Cascades. I grew up in a middle/upper middle class neighborhood about a mile from downtown Portland Oregon in the 50s. Our neighborhood did have a sense of community. Weekly barbecues in the summer and a couple of road trips were not uncommon. The neighbors were always looking out for each other. When I grew, married and moved to the suburbs all this sense of community disappeared. I felt the loss. When I moved to a 55 plus community a few years ago some of this sense of community returned. We did have a local block party once a year and did look out for each other. When I sold the house and moved into a 55 plus apartment complex the sense of community disappeared once again. Tribalism is not always a good thing – see the religious right and the modern Republican party, but a sense of community is.