About the USA, Washington D.C., and Wards 7 & 8

History

The United States, commonly called the US, declared its independence from the United Kingdom in 1776, and became an independent nation in 1783.  Since then, the USA has expanded to become the 4th largest nation in the world by land area, and the third largest by population at 324 million people as of July 2016.  

U.S. population diversityThe US is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse countries in the world due to successive waves of immigration.  Native American tribes lived in what is now the USA for at least 12,000 years prior to European colonization starting in the late 1500s.  The English, French, Spanish and Dutch all made efforts to colonize North America, and they — along with the first African slaves starting in 1619 — constituted the first wave of immigration after the Native Americans.    

The second wave in the late 1700s up to the mid 1800s came mostly from northern Europe, especially England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.  Many in the third wave, occurring in the second half of the 1800s through 1945, came from southern and eastern Europe, including Italy, Greece, U.S. statesPoland and Russia.  The fourth wave since the end of World War II has come mostly from Latin America and Asia, especially Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, China, Korea, Vietnam, India and Pakistan.

Over the course of these immigration waves, the United States expanded from 13 original colonies on the East Coast to fifty states, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as territories and possessions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  

Arguably the two most traumatic events in the history of the United States were the Civil War (1861-1865), which ended slavery yet claimed the lives of more Americans than any other war in which the U.S. has been involved, and the Great Depression, which started with the stock market crash in 1929 and didn’t end until World War II, more than a decade later.  The U.S. emerged from World War II a major superpower with robust economic growth, though sharply rising income and wealth inequality since the 1970s.

Environment

Located in North America, the U.S. shares borders with only two countries: Canada to the north, and Mexico to the South, with a long Pacific coast to the west and a long Atlantic coast to the east.  Its land is diverse, with vast plains in the middle, mountains to the west, hills and lower mountains in the east, mountains and river valleys in Alaska, and tropical terrain with volcanoes in Hawaii.  Its climate is equally diverse: more temperate in the east, tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, drier and more tempestuous in the central plains, and hot and dry in the southwest.

The U.S. has a variety of environmental issues, both natural and man-made.  These include active volcanoes (in Hawaii, Alaska and the northwest), earthquakes, droughts, mud slides and forest fires in the west, hurricanes and flooding along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts, and tornadoes in the midwest and southeast.


Major US Company Logos
Economy

The USA is one of the wealthiest and most productive nations in the world, measured by per capita income and gross domestic product (GDP). The US has a diversified economy, but excels in high-technology sectors including computers, medicine, aerospace and military industry.  American companies like Walmart, ExxonMobil and Apple are among the largest businesses in the world, and American music, movies, TV shows and food are popular in many countries worldwide.  For all its economic strength though, the US also has economic problems, including substantial income and wealth inequality, aging infrastructure (e.g., roads, bridges, schools, water and sewer systems), fast rising medical and pension costs due in part to an expanding elderly population, and large budget and trade deficits.

Politics

The US is arguably the most powerful nation in the world given not only the size and reach of its military, but also its diplomatic leadership, and cultural and economic influence.  The US is composed of fifty states, a federal district (Washington D.C.) plus a number of territories and possessions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (e.g., Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands).

The US government is composUS Congressed of legislative, judicial and executive branches, each with its own powers that are supposed to “check and balance” the powers of the other branches.  This three-branch form of government also largely carries at the state and local levels.  The US government is the oldest living federal republic, and has enjoyed relative peace and stability for most of its history.  Nonetheless, American politics currently suffers from growing political polarization among its politicians and most active voters, and the heavy influence of monied individuals and interest groups.  

People & Culture

It is estimated that the US will become “majority minority” — meaning Latinos, African Americans, Asians and other minorities will together outnumber Whites — by 2044. Religiously, the US is fairly diverse — 47% identifying as Protestant, 23% Non-Religious, 21% Catholic, 2% Mormon, 2% Jewish, 1% Muslim, 1% Buddhist, and 1% Hindu — with a trend toward more Americans identifying as non-religious.

For all its impressive diversity, the US has long struggled with discrimination against African Americans and immigrants.  African Americans have suffered the worst discrimination.  The first Africans came to the US as slaves, and African Americans today still endure discrimination in education, employment, housing, criminal justice and other domains despite the bloody Civil War which ended slavery, and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s which ended legal segregation.

American foodThe US’s ethnic and racial diversity is reflected in its diversity of music and food.  Popular American music genres includes country, rhythm and blues, hip hop, house, funk and rock & roll.  Iconic American foods include hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, pancakes, brownies, apple pie, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.  But Americans also love Mexican, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese and Indian, among other cuisines.  These diverse cuisines have led to ethnic fusions such as Tex-Mex and Korean tacos.  Competitive sports are common after-school and weekend activities in many American communities.  American football Among spectator sports, football is the most popular, followed by baseball, basketball and hockey.  Americans also spend a lot of time in front of screens, watching movies, TV shows, music videos, and social media feeds from American media companies such as Disney, Time Warner, Facebook, Twitter and Google.

In terms of values which guide thought and behavior, Americans are well known to be more individualistic than collectivistic, yet they nonetheless spend more time and money on associations (athletic, religious, political, professional, educational, charitable, etc.) than many other wealthy, western nations.  Americans often stress the importance of hard work, perseverance, and creativity or ingenuity.  They tend to be friendly and helpful to strangers, though there are personal and regional variations.  They prize freedom above all, and assume equality in everyday social relations but not in economic relations.

About Washington D.C., and Wards 7 & 8    

Washington D.C.Washington — located in the center of the USA’s east coast, and not to be confused with the state of Washington, or other cities and towns across the nation named after the first U.S. President George Washington — was founded in 1791 and is the capital of the United Stares.  It is also known as the District of Columbia, DC, or “The District.”  For fifty years, from 1950 to 2000, D.C. lost population, and stagnated economically due, among other factors, to government mismanagement, racial unrest in the 1960s, a crack cocaine epidemic in the 1980s, and the flight of wealthier residents into suburbs outside D.C.  However, starting in the 2000s, the city has experienced population growth and an economic resurgence.  This resurgence has included rapidly rising real estate (e.g., homes, offices and stores) prices, leading to concerns about the ability of D.C.’s poorest residents to remain in their city.    

Washington D.C.Washington was for many years majority black (some call it “The Chocolate City” for that reason).  It is now slightly less than half  black, and more and more whites and other races are moving into D.C., taking many of the available jobs.  As in the rest of the USA and the world, jobs are substantially segregated by race/ethnicity, with black residents occupying more of the lower-paid, lower-ranked service and administrative jobs.

Anacostia residentsWashington D.C. is composed of eight districts or “wards.”  The Anacostia River divides DC in two, with Wards 1-6 located west of the River, and Wards 7 and 8 on the east side.  These two wards east of the Anacostia River are the two poorest wards in an otherwise rich city getting richer.  The chart below compares Wards 7 and 8 with Washington D.C. and the entire nation, showing large differences, and underscoring how racially and economically segregated the USA (and cities in general) can be.               

Latest U.S. Census demographics (2009-2014)
Category Type USA Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Wards 7 & 8
Race & Ethnicity White 62% 36% 2.4%
Hispanic 17% 10% 2.3%
Black 13% 49% 95%
Asian 5% 4% 0.4%
Two or more races 3% 3% NA
Native American or Alaskan 1.2% 0.6% NA
Foreign Birth & Language Foreign-Born 13% 14% 3%
Language other than English spoken at home 21% 16% NA
Education Persons 25+ years old who are high school graduates 86% 88% 81%
Persons 25+ years old who are college graduates 29% 52% NA
Economic Factors % of Americans who own their home 65% 42% 32%
Average number of persons per household 2.6 2.2 NA
Median household income $53,000 $66,000 $52,000
% of Americans living in poverty (poverty line is now about $25,000/year for a family of 4) 15% 19% 32%

(Note: NA=Not Available)

          

Sources

Central Intelligence Agency.  The World Factbook.

Neighborhood Info DC.  Neighborhood Profiles.  

Pew Research Center.  5 key findings about the changing U.S. religious landscape.

U.S. Census Bureau.  Quick Facts: District of Columbia.

U.S. Census Bureau.  Quick Facts: United States.

Wikipedia.  United States.  

Wikipedia.  Washington, D.C.

 

 

DC Citizen Diplomacy Initiative

As the capital of the United States, Washington D.C. is a center of national and international affairs yet many D.C. residents are not meaningfully engaged in these affairs.  Knowledge about and engagement in national and international affairs is not a luxury poor people can’t afford; it can be crucial to personal advancement and to narrowing stubborn social inequalities in our globalizing world.  Starting in 2016, Learning Life is developing an initiative in Washington D.C. to address these disengagement and inequality issues in an innovative way.

Washington D.C.Learning Life’s Citizen Diplomacy Initiative will engage selected D.C. children and their parents (or mentors or legal guardians) free of charge in “virtual exchanges” or live, internet, video dialogues with families in other nations worldwide in order to nurture peace and family and youth development.  The Initiative will:

1) focus on learning and skill-building through cross-national, youth-driven dialogue and collaboration.

2) be supported by volunteer mentors, project advisors, language interpreters and the youths’ parents.

3) organize the dialogues in participating families’ homes or in local offices with high-speed internet.

Live virtual exchanges present a promising yet still underdeveloped means for meaningfully bridging social, political and geographic divides, and reducing the advantage the wealthiest have in travel and international affairs.  In pursuing this initiative, one of Learning Life’s long-term goals is to help democratize diplomacy by increasing the number of ordinary people — but especially those less privileged — engaged in international dialogue and collaboration.

Learning Life is now recruiting the following interested volunteers.  In many cases, volunteers can perform more than one of the roles in bold red below (e.g., a dialogue organizer can also be a youth mentor).

(1) Families in metro Washington D.C. and other nations.  In metro D.C., highest priority is currently given to D.C. residents east of the Anacostia River, in Wards 7 & 8.   Learning Life also seeks to reach families that have fewer educational and travel experiences.  Thus, families in the U.S. and abroad should have:

(a) parents with no more than a bachelor’s degree (4 years of university leading to a diploma)

(b) not traveled by plane as a family for vacation outside the USA or their country of residence more than twice

(c) at least one parent and one child age 10-18 willing to participate in at least one dialogue

Grandparents or legal guardians and their children, or mentors and their mentees are also welcome to participate.  The same restrictions above apply to them.  

(2) Dialogue organizers in metro D.C. and abroad (particularly in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East) .  Dialogue organizers are vital because they help find all the other dialogue participants — families, mentors, interpreters/translators and project advisors — in their community.  Interested individuals living outside the USA can learn more about becoming a dialogue organizer here.

(3) Responsible youth mentors in metro Washington D.C. and abroad who adopt a participating family, moderating the family’s dialogues, and assisting the children with international projects they may pursue together.  Mentors should ideally have at least a bachelor’s degree, or be enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program, though others are welcome to apply.  

(4) Fluent Arabic, French, Spanish and Tagalog speakers in metro Washington D.C. and abroad who are willing to occasionally volunteer as dialogue interpreters and/or document translators.

(5) Project advisors in metro Washington D.C. and abroad who advise youth and their parents and mentors to help them carry out their international projects effectively.  Advisors should be working or retired professionals with knowledge and skills in their work field, whether in media, arts, food, tourism, education, business, community-building, or else.

To volunteer or learn more, please contact us at email@learninglife.info

Educational Placemats & Local Learning Infrastructure

2/15/16 update: This project is on hold while we focus on developing our new and exciting Citizen Diplomacy Initiative this year.

Following on our mission to spread knowledge in everyday life, this year Learning Life is launching a project to spread educational placemats in metro Washington D.C.

These placemats will feature quiz questions and answers on a growing range of educational topics, from local history to international affairs, depending on community interest. The placemats will be sponsored to make their funding possible, printed in full-color to be eye-catching, laminated so they can be reused, and distributed in D.C. restaurants, bars, cafes, cafeterias and other eateries free to spread learning more widely. The educational content will be written for adults as well as kids, and we will encourage D.C. eateries to use the placemats for all their customers, not just children.

Paul LachelierThis placemat project is part of Learning Life’s ongoing effort to develop a local learning infrastructure – a community’s means for informing and engaging residents and visitors about all that matters to their lives, from emergencies, school programs and regional economics all the way to global economic, political and cultural news and trends. Such means can take many forms, from traditional schools, afterschool programs and adult education classes, to outdoor murals, posters, billboards, kiosks and screenings, to the mostly indoor consumer surfaces Learning Life focuses on, like napkins, coasters and placemats.

As our credo indicates, learning need not, and should not, be confined to one’s youth inside school walls. If learning is to be a lifelong process, then it makes sense to invest in local learning infrastructures that reach people in their everyday lives, and engage them in fruitful incidental learning that might not otherwise occur. For our sponsors, these placemats offer an innovative and eye-catching way to show your support for community education.

Our first planned placemat will feature local history, specifically five interesting questions and answers about the history of Washington D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood. An electronic version of the placemat will be coming soon to this page. Individuals and organizations interested in sponsoring this first placemat or future ones (your ideas for future placemats are welcome!) should contact me directly at paul@learninglife.info.

Paul Lachelier, Ph.D.
Founder, Learning Life

Partner Spotlight: Joyce Woodson, Founder, The Referral Project

In 2015, Learning Life benefited from two $1,000+ donations thanks to The Referral Project.  Below, we spotlight Joyce Woodson, founder of The Referral Project, who helps explain how you and anyone you know who is planning on buying or selling real estate can significantly help Learning Life without paying a penny.  

Where were you born and raised?

I was born and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

What is your line of work?

I have earned my living as a real estate broker for nearly 30 years, and served in elected office for six years.  Gardening, however, is my true life’s work.

Joyce WoodsonWhat, in brief, is the Referral Project, and why did you create it?

The Referral Project funds nonprofits using real estate commissions earned when we refer a real estate agent to a real estate consumer and a transaction occurs.  Nonprofits share The Referral Project with their supporters just like they would share any other funding opportunity.  Supporters (i.e. consumers) contact The Referral Project and we find and refer the best agents for their needs.  The Referral Project, not the agent, then donates half of our commission earnings from that referral to a nonprofit selected by the consumer.  I created The Referral Project to support nonprofits. I am a philanthropist at heart; The Referral Project allows me to support nonprofits in a significant way.  To date, donations have ranged from $500 to over $6,000.

How can an interested individual or nonprofit get started with the Referral Project?

A nonprofit or an individual can contact us by email or phone at any time: info@TheReferralProject.com or 703-647-9575.  This is a free national service; there are no fees to the nonprofit or to the consumer.

Is there a particular life experience you have had that has shaped you as a person?  If so, what is it, and how has it shaped you?

Running for and serving in elected office was a personal life-changing experience.  (I was elected to the Alexandria City Council in 2000.  I served two terms and did not seek re-election.)  I have always been engaged in community building.  I was honored that people thought I would make a good elected official, but I was stunned when they worked for and funded my campaign.  Who was I to deserve this trust? It was a humbling experience as well as an exhilarating experience.  As the first African American woman elected to hold this seat, I became a role model for young women of color.  Serving in elected office allowed me to shape public policy, in particular expanding affordable housing opportunities and creating civic engagement training to bring more people into the very heart of our democratic process.

What is the most beautiful place you’ve seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?

I am not well traveled, but the Grand Canyon is the most majestic and incredible place I have ever seen.  Nature carved and painted that magnificent site over many millennia.  I reflect on it regularly as a reminder that humans have only been part of nature for a very short time.  It helps to keep things in perspective, and that perspective has informed my life’s narrative.