Tara Sonenshine is an American diplomat and Emmy-winning former broadcast journalist whose career has taken her to the center of some of the late twentieth century’s most consequential events. In the 1990s, she reported on war and trauma across the globe, including the violent suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later. She also covered the Iran–Iraq War, witnessed ethnic conflict in South Africa, and reported on the human toll of poverty in Mexico.

Beyond journalism, Sonenshine has held senior roles in the U.S. government under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, working on international conflict resolution and public diplomacy. Today, as a professor of cultural engagement and public diplomacy, she studies how compassion functions as a civic force—one that can help build, sustain, and repair civil society.

In this article she highlights and celebrates a recent research report examining the state of compassion in America—what she understands as a vital form of social glue that holds communities together. The report’s central finding is quietly encouraging: despite political polarization and harsh national rhetoric, Americans continue to show up for one another in concrete, measurable ways. Their everyday actions—giving, volunteering, and helping in times of crisis—stand in clear contrast to the Trump administration’s retreat from compassion as a public value.

The 2025 Compassion Report, produced by the Muhammad Ali Center, surveyed more than 5,000 adults across 12 U.S. cities to assess real-world compassionate behavior and perceptions of national compassion. Researchers measured charitable giving, volunteering, and assistance after disasters, creating a “net compassion score” that captures how much time and resources people devote to their communities. Cities with higher scores tend to show stronger civic participation, better public housing and mental health services, more community programs, clearer local government communication, and greater optimism about economic development.

Overall, Americans rated the nation’s compassion at 9 on a scale from minus 100 to 100, reflecting a modest but meaningful positive assessment rooted in lived experience. At the same time, respondents reported that the United States feels less compassionate than it did four years ago—suggesting not a loss of care, but a growing gap between how people treat one another and how they experience public life. Many still want the country to be compassionate, and believe it can be.

‍ARTICLE: Even as Polarization Surges, Americans Believe They Live in a Compassionate Country