What is a sense of community? It is the personal relationships you develop, your family, friends, and neighbors. It is the feeling that you belong, that you matter. It is to actually get involved in your surrounding area. In thinking about these three ideas of community, what have we lost, not only in ourselves, in our communities, and in our nation? I believe we have lost that sense of speaking to one another respectfully, with actual interest and compassion. When you walk down the street, how many people will not even look up from their cell phones to say, “Hi,” as you pass by? How many people are actually committed to keeping their neighborhoods presentable or who watch out for the kids on bikes or who are getting off their school buses? Do you know your neighbors well enough to be of assistance when they need help or when emergencies occur?
For personal relationships to develop, for people to know they matter, and for getting involved in the community, we cannot sit on the side lines, and we have to take the time to slow down enough to be a genuine person, for ourselves and for everyone. For communities to survive the onslaught of a world obsessed with money and how much you have, we must take care of one another, love one another, and know that God is present in all we do. He is the One who holds us together as families, friends, neighbors, and communities. As we grow in realizing that our similarities give us common ground to build on and our differences make us beautiful suns among a universe of stars, we must always remember that we are ubuntu, “the I am because we are.”
As for our nation, we have lost our way in our values, in determining truth from lies, in civility to one another, in standing for integrity, in being courageous, in strengthening our faiths, and in our need to take care of humanity before taking care of money. When war is being used to blind Americans to the real reason of imperialism and greed, our path forward remains in peril. When the basic needs of Americans to survive their everyday lives is trampled on by “power-hungry” politicians, we cannot sit back and do nothing. This is the time to slow down, to see the realities of our lost values, and to renew the fight for our democracy, once again, as our Founding Fathers fought so valiantly for. If we do not begin re-building our communities and putting the needs of our people first, our nation will not survive the world’s terrorists, dictators, angry and bewildered allies, or even a man who uses vulgarity to threaten his enemies. For me, that would be the worst thing that could happen to us. I happen to believe that we are free because of the brave, that there is no more beautiful country in the world when we pull together. That is the question … unity or division?
The words we say matter; what we do matters; what we and the world become matters. As Christ said, “Be still and know that I am.” We create a better world by understanding the belief that Christ walks beside us. With Him, all things are possible. “We are because of Him.” We are to be fishers of men. Let us also strive to be fishers of our communities and our nation.
Anna Hartt
