Co-operation, not competition

My neighbors plow our driveway without us paying them despite the cost of gas. Many funds are being cut. If a program is important, people are having fundraisers to make up the difference. Volunteers are drying up. We used to have a fully volunteer fire fighting and EMT squad, now the EMTs are paid. Which is better, volunteers go to other towns and work, so do the firefighters. Takes forever to get help, but not now. Our PTAs do lots of cooperative stuff. The VFW makes money to buy schools dictionaries. We have many disaster coordinators that worktogether. We found that out during the ice storm. Red Cross, fire dept, FEMA, etc.

I administer some alms houses, a Christian foundation. They call themselves a community and in terms of personal support they certainly are. However, all is not always sweetnes and light and there are some characters that can be overpowering. In the main though they look out for each other, nurse them when they are unwell, shop and arrange community outings etc. We are also developing a thriving kitchen garden and I would love to start a small scale pig or sheep unit on 8 acres of land that we let out for 6 months of the year to a farmer as grazing land. But that would require younger people to run and as the average age is about 75 we might struggle. I quite fancy the idea of chickens too; but there are those that will complain about rats etc.

I think your title says it all. We have lost a lot when we are all going against each other instead of supporting each other. I can give you two examples about my community and co operation. One is in the area of preservation. Over the last thirty five years we have restored an old "Opera House" we have had some grants, some corporate donations, but we have also had lots of fund raising and maintaining by the community. This has now become a viable building with offices, displays, ball rooms and conference rooms. Nationally known talent can be booked in. Tour buses stop to visit, and it serves as the starting point for historic trolley rides around the community. The other example is also great. It is called Churches United In Ministry. They run a thrift shop,help people with utilities, provide for persons hit by disaster, etc. Along that same line, our community maintains a food bank, and beyond that we have an organization in our church called Outreach McPherson, that finds furniture, especially beds and dressers for families. We also stock a food pantry. As I think about it, I can list a lot of other ways that people in our community care for each other, and it makes me proud.

I believe there are situations where we should help each other, and situations where we should not. I personally do not agree with helping someone who does not want to help themselves. Take our welfare system for instance. Now I know there are a lot of people who have trouble getting by from month to month. There are many people who are doing their best, but cannot make ends meet for whatever reasons. I am glad there is a welfare system in place to help the less fortunate. However, there are also people out there who would take advantage of the welfare system. There are people who earn many illegally, or "under the table" (wages are not reported to the IRS). Since these people do not have tracable income, they will apply for welfare or food stamps and get free money from the government even though they don't need it. I remember awhile back a famous rap star publically and proudly announced that he was recieving food stamps.. even though he probably made millions of dollars in record sales. My husband told me that in the "ghetto" areas of the city (he used to work on the city's south side, which is considered the ghetto around here, so he knew this from his customers), churches and other such places will offer seminars and lectures on how to fool the government into giving you more money than you deserve. Things like registering your vehicle in someone else's name so that welfare cannot count your vehicle as an asset, or lying about who actually lives with you and who doesn't. As a matter of fact, my mother did this for years. When I was 16 and working, they were going to lower her food stamps because of my income. So she stated that I moved out. Then, when I was 18, still living at home, and trying to raise my own child, I could not get food stamps for myself, because if I'd stated that I lived there she could have been arrested for welfare fraud. Many people (even those deserving) who are on the welfare system also do not make any attempts to work towards getting off the system. If they get a job they'll lose their welfare money, so getting a job isn't very motivating to them. I understand the feeling in a way. We've been recieving food stamps for a couple years now, and I've recently gotten a part time job. My goal when I got the job was to work towards building up a savings account, paying some debts, and having a bit of spending money. Of course then I realized that we're going to lose our food stamps because of my income. Granted it's better to work for your money and not recieve food stamps from tax payers, but still, my income will now need to go towards buying food because we can no longer count on that money from food stamps. It is a little depressing in a way to know that I'm working this hard and not getting ahead at all. It's almost as if I need another job to accomplish my goals as this one is only getting us exactly where we already were.

I think even getting to know one another in our community can prevent danger and create security. I feel if we are all each other's opponents, we will never trust each other.