Interfaith dialogue and Neighborhood identity

Communities rise and fall on their ability not only to get along, but understand and reconcile.  Arlington Interfaith Council has been promoting good relationships from its inception.  It will sponsor a panel discussion on Sunday, January 16, with people representing all three of the Abrahamic faith traditions--Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Visit here  Just so, as an activist community AIC takes pride in "the Arlington way."  I hope it's a success and well-attended, but I'm not optimistic.  Those who care about this kind of "life quality" issues are few and far between.  It's difficult to lift up neighborliness, when so many of our neighborhoods are that in name only.  I live about 20 miles from Arlington.  I barely see my neighbors.  I only know them by sight.  In fact the family across the street has two children, both born in the past six years, that I've never met.  Our neighborhoods are more likely to be defined by associations of choice--sports teams, clubs--than those of accidental geography.  Does neighborliness increase or decline when we can exercise full choice in the neighborhoods with whom we associate?
The tragedy in Arizona over the weekend heightens our lack of human connectedness.  Those people who put themselves outside the neighborhood are a danger not only to themselves but to the fabric of human communities.