A Sense of Community

When I was very young I noticed little things that I saw my parents and my grandparents do, things which instilled a sense of community responsibility. I watched my grandfather bend down and pick up a cigarette butt that had been carelessly discarded in the courtyard of their apartment complex. He grumbled about folks who toss cigarette butts on the ground and then he looked at me and taught me the lesson I was supposed to get out of it, “It’s up to the responsible people of the world to do our part.” He then walked with me a few extra steps before depositing it in a trash receptacle, something that even a small child knows how to do.

I mention this because Jennifer, my daughter, noticed that when the trailer trash renters from next door moved out they left their dog to starve in the back yard. The neighbors had never taken care of the property, after all they were renting and had no reason to paint, mend the fence that was falling down or any of the other responsible duties involved in home ownership; they simply left. I suppose they figured that the dog would eventually figure out how to wander off through the broken fence.

Jennifer took the dog in, gave it several baths to make it clean enough for her back yard, fed it and took it to the veterinarian for shots and worming. This is the same dog that Jennifer would complain about barking at all hours; mostly because the dog was being neglected, now it’s her dog. They named it Monte and I’m wondering if they get another will they name it Patton; just a thought.

I was on the phone with my mother; she’d learned about this from Jenn. Mom was overflowing with praise for Jenn taking on the responsibility and this “sense of community”. Mom reminded me of the time she noticed broken glass scattered throughout the playground where we all would dig in the sand, slide and swing. She’d asked some of the other neighbors to join her, a chance to make the playground safe for all the kids and found that they were reluctant, as if that sort of task was somehow beneath their dignity and left to others. Mom ended up doing it by herself; after all it did need to be done. Nobody had to force her or place her under duress; it came down to somebody with a responsible nature stepping up to the line.

I’ll toss in my sense of pride for having a family with members from all generations, individuals who understand that it’s not enough to pick up after yourself; sometimes we have to pick up after our neighbors too. I think my grandfather would have been pleased with Jennifer and that line from John F. Kennedy, “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” For all I know, JFK might have borrowed from my grandfather’s sense of community.