Why We Should Care

In the late nineties, I lived in Battle Creek, Michigan. It is a fairly nice town, a (former?) company town. One of the local referenda that came up during my time of residence there was a millage increase to pay for school improvements, new schools and various other school related upgrades. It was defeated, though the need was clearly there. One of the reasons for the defeat was a concerted "no" effort by those who did not have school age children. Their argument was that they should not have to pay for schools when they did not have children in the schools.

I won't get into a discussion of that specifically, but I want to use it as a highlight to demonstrate what I do want to talk about. America is the world capital of individualism, in all the good and bad ways that can be taken. This country is, though, a community, dedicated to the ideal that "all men are created equal". We are a community because we care about our neighbors. We hold open doors, we help people struggling with too many parcels, we do a lot of little things, simply because we care or we like to believe that our good deeds are repaid in kind by others when we need a good deed done for ourselves. I've been on both the giving and receiving end of funeral casseroles - kind gifts of food from neighbors and friends during a time of grief.

I want to write some well reasoned and eloquent post about how we of this country are no better than the least of us. But, honestly, I am suffering from some variety of writer's block or verbal constipation or something. I think the latter is closer to the truth - for the past six months I have been bingeing on political information - books I read, news I read, websites I visit and so on. I think it has all formed into some gelatinous/fibrous mass in my head that has blocked out my ability to think or reason verbally.

So, I am going to sum this up and try to write about some other things for a while and think about some other things for a while, so maybe I can get back on track. Ultimately, we are, as a nation, what we make of ourselves. If we feel that we owe nothing to the community, unless there is tangible, direct benefit to us, then that is a powerful statement about who we are. We are no longer America the nation, but rather America the collection of individuals, and down that path lies only darkness.