“I don’t know. I just work here.” This is my lame excuse every time someone (my wife, my students, etc.) asks me a question that I either can’t answer or would prefer to avoid. It’s meant to be funny, but it’s pretty lame if I try to use it as an actual excuse.
Unfortunately, this exact mindset is why so many of us only live in or around towns, not realizing that a community surrounds us. So many Americans live in a place, but are not of that place. They are not members of a church or civic organizations. They don’t volunteer. They hardly know any of their neighbors, and are unknown by most. They simply work here.
So many Americans have a healthy libertarian streak (including me) that just wants the government to leave us alone if at all possible. This impulse becomes unhealthy when taken to the extreme of disengagement from one’s community. If we want the government to leave us alone, we must have healthy communities. They are the fabric that weaves us together. But here’s the kicker: the most important work done in and by communities is not paid, and it is not mandatory. This work is hard, often thankless and largely devoid of tangible benefits.
You’re not going to become fabulously wealthy and famous by becoming an integral part of your community. Do it anyway. Your community needs you, and you need your community. You can’t just work here.
Former U.S. Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts Barney Frank is widely attributed with defining government as “simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together.” With all due respect to Representative Frank, I disagree. Community is the name we ought to give to the things we choose to do together. These things are not mandatory, but are absolutely vital to the health of our republic.
Communities come in many shapes and sizes. For our purposes, let’s stipulate that Missouri (or your state), the United States and the world are not the “communities” we’re discussing. They’re simply too big. In a community we find people we know. We have shared experiences and goals. Most importantly, members of a community share a love for the place where they live, and a desire to improve that community for future generations. By this definition, a citizen of a town or city is not automatically a member of a community. As I mentioned earlier, this takes effort. Not everyone is willing to put forth that effort. Some just want to work here.
In early 2019, the American Enterprise Institute released a national survey on the American dream. What’s the bottom line of the survey? National events tend to divide us and make us unhappy. Events within our communities tend to bring us together and make us happier. AEI found that 73% of Americans are satisfied with the state of their communities, compared with 43% who feel the same way about the country.
Overwhelming majorities in the AEI survey reported that people in their neighborhood get alone well with each other, are willing to help their neighbors, trust people in their neighborhood and feel safe in their neighborhoods at the “very” or “fairly” level. At a root level, Americans are OK with the people who live around us. Whether we know them very well is a different story.
The AEI study tells us that only 54% of Americans know our neighbors very or fairly well. When we don’t know each other, our collective involvement wanes. Only 18% of respondents reported being involved in their communities and satisfied with their current level of involvement. Why do people not get involved in their communities at the level they desire? The two most common answers were lack of information about how to get involved (34%) an an inflexible or demanding work schedule (31%).
Even in the Age of Covid, so many of us feel like we have nothing left to give after our time has been devoted to our work and our families. We’re convinced that our resources have been tapped out. “I would love to have my kids play sports, but we’re just too busy.” “The last thing I need is one more meeting.” “I want to go to church, but Sunday is the only day I have some time for me.” We have crammed our schedules so incredibly full that we feel as if we have nothing left to give our neighbors. We need to give it anyway. Your community needs you, and you need your community.
We all recognize the holes in the lives of so many of our neighbors. We see those who have been left behind and need assistance. Progressives often call for more government programs to attempt to fill those holes. Conservatives in turn will decry government intervention. We all see the same holes, but we’re not sure exactly how to fix them. Do those holes have the shape of government intervention? It has its place, to be sure. Do they have the shape of personal responsibility? There is no doubt that many problems Americans face can be improved by an increase in personal responsibility. In my humble opinion, many of those holes are the shape of a neighbor, a civic organization or a church. In short, they bear the shape of a community.
Being a member of a community isn’t a zero-sum game. What’s good for you can also be good for your neighbors. What you do for your neighbors can have immeasurable benefits for you. We all want to live in safe places where we trust our neighbors. We want to have strong civic organizations. We desire high property values. Most of all, each of us wishes to belong to something greater than ourselves. Unfilled, that desire will gnaw at each of us. It will leave us wanting more, regardless of how much material wealth we accumulate. It leaves within us the desire to be needed. Being an active part of your community can help meet that need.
Our neighbors need us. They need us to work and to pay our taxes. They also need us to work the concession stand at the ballgame. They need us to pick up trash on the side of the road. They need us to attend that meeting, even though it’s the last thing we want to do. They need us to care about their kids, all the while knowing that what’s best for their kids is almost certainly best for ours as well.
None of this is a call to neglect your job or your family. On the contrary. Pour your heart and soul into them. It’s not a call to spend all of your time away from home, but be sure to volunteer every now and then when you get the chance. It’s not a call to spend all of your money on charity, but you may give someone that boost they needed when you do contribute. It’s not a call to pour all of your efforts into politics. When you do participate in politics, it may be good to focus more on the local level. That is where our most fundamental problems exist, and that is the best place to solve them. This is a call to shrink the areas of our lives where politicians need to intercede.
We go to work. We come home. there are things to plan, meetings to attend and meals to prepare. We often feel as if we have nothing left to give our neighbors. For your good and theirs, be a leader in your community. Be a volunteer. Will the good of the other, and do your best to make their lives better if you can. You can choose to just work here, but you’ll be happier if you don’t.