We are in highly charged times. I think if we went back a decade, those of us who were around during those times would be shocked that things are where they are now. Some things may be not as shocking, but I think that it’s time to start dialing things back and recognize not only who we really are at the core but who we could be. And we do that by acknowledging who we could be as a society.
We can be a society where we all do our parts to support one another and each other’s growth. When all parts of our society are strong, when our neighbors are strong, we all grow stronger. This should be regardless of any factor other than we are all human beings.
Strong communities are good for business. They can spend more locally. The things that hold most communities back are areas of poverty, families falling into crisis due to healthcare costs, poor government response to things like hurricanes and flooding, poor investment in education, poor investment and neglect with infrastructure.
Want more options for things to do in the community, want a better selection of places to eat? Help communities grow in a way that fosters businesses. These are the challenges we must address.
We cannot continue to make excuses to not help our fellow citizens. I’m a former foster parent. I have fostered four children, adopted two of them. My wife has been involved in family service and helping support families for over a decade — I’ve been at her side. I volunteer at a local [non-political] food pantry using lending my design skills to amplify their efforts to feed people locally and across NWFL. I’ve seen how easy it can be for people to fall to a place they cannot recover from without help. I’ve heard some pretty heart wrenching stories.
As a military brat, I’ve met so many different people. In my career, I’ve known people in different levels of economic strength, even despair. You take away all that you can see from a person and catch them in a place of truth, strip away all the political/ideological BS, and you will find we are almost universally alike. We want to grow, love — we want our children to be strong, educated; we want a healthy place to live and work. We just have to look through all this political noise to see that.
We can create that shining city on the hill, but it cannot be built on the ashes of the people who built it or weren’t welcome.
Originally appearing at: https://medium.com/@johnforflorida/tone-matters-84298416d4ff