Our national myths often exaggerate the role of the individual heroes and understate the importance of collective effort.

Young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of five to six times the historic rate.

Busy people tend to forgo the one activity - TV watching _ that is most lethal to community involvement

Social capital may turn out to be a prerequisite for, rather than a consequence of, effective computer-mediated communication.

School performance, public health, crime rates, clinical depression, tax compliance, philanthropy, race relations, community development, census returns, teen suicide, economic productivity, campaign finance, even simple human happiness - all are demonstrably affected by how (and whether) we connect with our family and friends and neighbours and co-workers.

Look, we ought to do this for our kids... We ought to have a high school so that every kid who grows up here - they're all our kids - gets a good high school education.

What really matters from the point of view of social capital and civic engagement is not merely nominal membership, but active and involved membership.