My town has been in the news a lot lately. Robberies, fires, a shooting, and a death. It’s a lot to take in, whether you know the people involved or not. {I personally do not.} It goes without saying that I’ve been watching a lot of tv during my 6 weeks of bed rest. {Also a lot of Facebook-ing and Twitter-ing.} It’s not very often that my town comes up. We are 60 miles from the major tv channels, but we don’t make the news very often {omitting sports related news}. Lately they have run back-to-back stories. There’s not a lot of judgement in the stories I’ve seen, just fact reporting.
It’s a lot different on Facebook. There’s a lot of gloom and doom and not for the families. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen anything about the families. Maybe that means I don’t know anyone who knows anyone who is related. {Did you follow that anyone and who madness?} Or maybe that means I follow a lot of people who are spending more time dogging on the town I grew up in. There are a lot of people asking what our town has become and other similar comments. I don’t exactly share their views. I should mention that I have a few friends who have called out all the negativity. It makes me happy to see these comments. They are completely correct.
Yes, there are always some bad apples in the bunch. We’re a free society, after all. Let’s spend less time criticizing the actions of a few people and spend more time putting in an effort to make sure our town is what we want it to be. It’s the classic example of criticizing something but doing nothing. What makes you any better? You may not be breaking the law, but you’re not doing anything to better the community either. But you are bringing it down. You’re spreading negativity. I’m not pretending to be all high and mighty. There’s more I could do to be involved, but I do take pride in the board of directors that I am involved in. It’s taught me that I want to be involved. I want to help the community. I may only be able to do it one organization at a time, but I’m doing what I can to give back. It’s helped me see what my future can be. I’m involved with so many great people who are involved in so many organizations. Their lifestyles are much different than mine and they have more free time, but they are still great role models.
Regardless of your town, are you doing something to help your community?
