- EDITORIAL 9/15/99
- Remember, a beautiful life is merely prayer in motion, and a world without prayer has no center to it. God bless us all.
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COMMUNITIES AND OUR CHILDREN
What relationship do children, our communities, and our own lives share?
Children are our greatest resource. Not just in the sense that they are the future of the world, but in the sense that they have so much to teach us as adults, to remind us of our innocence. As an artist, I'm drawn to children because they cause a reaction from within me when they comment on how my music makes them feel. I enjoy hearing their honest responses to what they think I'm trying to say, and I enjoy sharing music with them because I know that someday, those same children will be sharing their knowledge with others. And I will have had some small part in their experiences.
Each person in our society, childless or not, has a responsibility to the community in which they live. The community supports itself through individual actions. However, if the individual remains huddled behind closed doors in front of a computer, television, or fly tying set, then no one benefits from the talents and spirit of that individual. And so society is shortchanged. And so eventually shall society shortchange it's very being, until we are a new society with no compassion, commitment, communal self-esteem, or balance. A community is a gathering of individuals. Period. They don't have to be like-minded, in fact diversity will cause the community to thrive just as a plant exposed to various weathers, waters, fertilizers, and light values thrives and grows stronger. Celebrate the differences in our communities rather than being frightened of them. All humans are nervous in the face of difference. Animals will avoid and even become violent as a result of that fear of change or the unknown in their animalistic society. 5-fingered humans should know better. Embrace the fear of each other, embrace the differences in each other. I for one, enjoy chocolate, Afrikan music, coffee, Mexican food, and the art of judo. None of these things come from the Euro-culturally dominated country of America, and none of them are part of the American Heritage as defined by Major Long as he traveled this continent in search of a better life for the new coming cultures.
A culture does not have to be conquered and rebuilt in order to fit into a society. Rather by learning of the culture and it's various 'isms', the community becomes more broad and strong. I look at the community of Milwaukee and it's surrounding areas as a wonderful example. They have many, many different cultures there, all intact in their cultural social network, yet the community is diverse enough that each culture can celebrate the others. Irish Fest, Mexican Fest, Indian Summer, German Fest, Maritime Days, are just a very few of the festivals held each weekend in the summer. Yet at the various festivals, people of all cultures are found enjoying the traditions of the other community components.
You have something to teach me, I have something to teach you. Together, we can work to teach our children the value of the community in which they live. By teaching our children this value, we support our community and by extension, protect our own futures. If you enjoy, live in, experience, or simply exist in a community, then you have a responsibility to the other members of that community to protect, teach, assist, and participate in the social and communal activities that your area offers. Without that commitment, then the community will die, if nothing more than a social death, leaving nothing more than a husk of homes filled with frightened, angry people that have no compassion for eachother. And who will be there when the community needs help? Most importantly, who will be there for our children? Beyond that, what lesson will our children have been taught about helping others, so that one day, they in turn shall be able to receive help?
