Political Organization - Stephanie Reynolds

After reading the article "Sacred Barriers to Conflict Resolution," I feel that sacred values of the American people can create barriers that make conflict resolution difficult. The sacred values such as religion, family, and honor/duty are some of the most important values in American culture, but these values can also cause problems between people who value other things. For example, one of the most important American values includes freedom, including freedom of religion, speech, and protest. In other cultures, such as the Middle East, these American values are not as sacred to them. Because of this dissent between their sacred values and ours, some conflict can result. Today, this conflict has even lead to a war on terrorism because each side values something different. Religion (Christianity vs. Islam) that has created huge problems for both the U.S. and the Middle East.

Even in America, a large part of the people may believe that US politicians have become too partisan. Sometimes politicians become too partisan without meaning too, and other times politicians do it to achieve their own aims. However, many politicians will claim they have the same sacred values as the American people: religion (oftentimes Christianity), family, and duty to represent the American people. When politicians become too partisan toward one sacred value, especially religion, this too could create conflict or make conflict resolution difficult in the future.

Of course each side is going to want to protect their sacred values, oftentimes no matter what the cost. America is a prime example of that since we have went through the American Revolution to win freedom from the English, and want to promote that sacred value in other oppressed countries as well. Once again, the Middle East comes into play since they want to protect their sacred values. A huge trade off in this case is that even though a country's sacred values are protected, its economy and society are going to suffer in some way because of the strains from war. American soldiers are sent to war, often at the cost of their lives, but they really are strong examples of how sacred the American values of freedom and duty are. Even the suicide bombers/terrorists go to war because they want to protect their values as well. As a result, many of the places in the Middle East are suffering economically and socially because of the war.