Recently, Unity '08 sent members an email for participation in a specific forum. However, eligibilty to participate in set forum required 3 criteria to be met. One of the criteria was that "participants parent must be born in the USA".
I personally found this criteria to be offensive as I am a first generation American, born in the USA.
The fact that my parent was required to be born in the USA as well removed me from participation.
I urge Unity'08 to reconsider this policy as it may cause allienation of some of it's delegates who are first generation natural born Americans.
There are several studies going on at the same time. I will do my best to explain how they are different and how they are related. But, first of all, the criteria for the offline discovery sessions are in no way correlated with the requirements to be a member of Unity08.
The "onsite" sessions are not part of the American Agenda, which is the process by which all Unity08 members will rank the crucial issues facing the country. The American Agenda will take place through a series of "online" studies (starting today and being distributed over the next week). No one is being excluded from the American Agenda. In fact, it is the very first opportunity for every member to vote.
The onsite sessions are meant to help us, through a research partnership, determine how generations of experience within the American culture have dealt with political change. When your parents were children, how did your grandparents talk about or introduce you to politics? Were politics a family issue or shunned from the table? Furthermore, when you were a child, how did your parents introduce you to politics?
Within the American culture, these experiences have shaped where we are at and how we feel, politically. In other words, these past experiences have shaped our present opinions. Our research team has proven that there are differences between someone that has been shaped by generations of American culture versus someone who has been shaped by various cultures, and we are looking to apply that theory to politics in this country.
Our research does not discount or value one of these over the other. We are simply starting with lineage that has been within American culture over the prescribed criteria. Our researchers have also indicated, actually, that those who have "chosen" the American culture have slightly different motivators than those who have been "living in" American culture for generations. We are looking to define those motivators - to find the keys from those who have been here for generations - that can form the base messaging for what we need to do to fix the country. Then, we can build from that message for those that have more diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences.
Bob Roth
VP Online Marketing, Unity08
comments AT unity08 DOT com
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