Dr. Janet Ruane, ICS Advisory Board member. C ommunity is an essential ingredient in democracy but everyday community is being eroded by social and technological forces that on some levels bring us together but on other levels tear us apart. These forces compel us to choose between struggle or resignation. The freedoms existing in the contemporary United States do not automatically promote the general welfare. Liberty does not necessarily produce democracy.
Democracy is an outgrowth of community and requires effort and vigilance.
Questions like these have been posed many times throughout our history and many answers have been given. The ICS aims to promote knowledge of the best answers so that they may be applied by those who are struggling for the sake of their communities. A community in which people know and care about each other is the basic building block for all other civilized activities, whether commercial, political, social, or spiritual. To develop a network among the faculty at Montclair State University for discussion of the concept of community and its importance in daily life, and for sharing information about ways of strengthening community. To help place students in community groups so they may complete the field work that many of them are required to do.