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.

How well you do in life shouldn't depend on how well your parents did.

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

Most Americans watch Friends rather than having friends.

People may go to the library looking mainly for information, but they find each other there.

None of the people watching 'Big Brother' will bring you chicken soup if you get sick.

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.