Sunday Reflections: It Starts in Local Communities – And it Starts with You!

A man laid down on the ground with his hands up in the air, he was shot anyway. There were bombings in Kabul and a mass shooting in Germany. The Republican convention ended with the notion that we should hang the democratic presumptive nominee for treason and the leaked news that members of the DNC and media colluded to make sure she got the nomination.

The world is a mess.

It’s easy to get pessimistic and feel like we are in the end times here just waiting for the apocalyptic event that tips the scales and has us all living out our own post apocalyptic version of The Walking Dead.

But there are things we can do. Things we MUST do.

First, vote. If you are of voting age, then please make sure to register to vote and to exercise that right. It’s not just the presidential election that matters, numerous seats in the Senate are up for the taking and we need to make a statement and fill those with people who understand that they are public servants. Vote out big money and corporate influence. Vote. Vote. Vote.

Vote for education.

Vote for families.

Vote for jobs.

Vote for unity.

Second, start changing the world one person at a time, one community at a time. Get involved locally. Volunteer. If there aren’t opportunities, create them.

Get to know your neighbors.

Make sure your local community has artistic, creative, and meaningful ways for people of all ages to engage in. Make sure they are accessible. For example, my local community doesn’t have a lot to offer youth, but it has an active soccer program which is accessible to only a few – you have to have the money to play and parents who work 9 to 5 work schedules so you can go to practice and games. Same for the softball program. That’s . . . not a lot. Opportunity is nothing if it also doesn’t have accessibility.

I happen to live in a community that doesn’t have a regular public library. There is a small public library that is part of the high school, but it doesn’t have the same breadth of collections, hours and programming that an independent library has. So a local friend of mine who is a HS librarian (different town) and I are working to put together a YA book club and discussion group. It’s not a lot, but it’s what we know.

Inspired by author Christa Desir, I now host Spaghetti Sundays at my house. I make a big pot of spaghetti and whoever wants to come comes and we hang out. Again, it’s not a revolutionary act, but it’s something I can do to help build relationships and bring positivity into the lives of my girls and our local community.

Of course as a librarian there are tons of things I do to help change my community and my teens for good, but I don’t work in the same community that I live and I know many of us don’t.

If you’re like me and you feel discouraged and overwhelmed, then let’s start trying to do what we can. (And yes, I know many of us are.) What we need is for our communities to feel connected, the people in our communities to feel respected and valued, and for our children to feel empowered and have hope.

No one person can do it alone, but together we can change the world.

Filed under: Sunday Reflections