Gilberts: New year gives us all a chance to get involved

One bright sunny morning years ago, as I took my garbage to the curb on King Street West in Chatham, I saw a man walking his son to school and doing something rather odd. Each had one of those sticks with a spike in the end and they were picking up garbage on front lawns they passed on their route to school. My obvious quizzical expression elicited an explanation from the father that I found absolutely inspiring.

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He said that once a month, he walks his son to school with their “garbage sticks” and they pick up trash from the front lawns of houses they pass. What a marvelous, responsible and thoroughly refreshing idea!

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It was a simple act, but one that said so much. The father was teaching his son to be a caring, responsible member of society, and showing that doing something for your community is a valuable and important activity.

I’ve never forgotten this very brief but insightful encounter, because it brought to light an old hobby horse of mine: the fear that we, in Chatham-Kent, have lost our sense of community. I worry we have all become so self-centered and self-absorbed that we have lost sight of our important responsibility to our immediate community.

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In earlier times, people cared deeply about their neighborhoods, communities and fellow citizens. There was a real desire and need to work together to make their fledgling community a better place to live. There was a shared vision and shared responsibility.

When Chatham-Kent was a mere scattering of rude homes, rut-filled trails, crude churches and homely hotels, local citizens knew they had to have a deep-seated sense of community or their settlement would quickly dissolve into a forgotten ghost town.

Today, we live in a world that encourages us to be self-absorbed, selfish and full of fear. We may want to interact with our community, but so many of us fear interacting or even talking to our fellow citizens that many of us live in self-imposed exile. We walk with our heads down, don’t acknowledge others and avoid eye contact at all costs.

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Why? Because the media loves to scare us with tales of muggings, sexual assaults, robberies and innocent people being attacked for no reason. Though you have a much better chance of winning the lottery than you do of having any of these things actually happen to you, we “buy into” this world of fear and retreat into our gated communities, triple-locked homes and leave our “fortresses ” only when absolutely necessary.

Clubs, organizations, service clubs, festivals and long-standing volunteer groups are filled with middle-aged and senior members. Few are able to attract people in their twenties and thirties. Younger people who once filled and were driving forces in these organizations are nowhere to be found. They do not seem to have that sense of community responsibility that once dominated our society. They are “too busy,” “too involved” with their work or children, or simply fail to see the value of doing something for their community. Many cannot “get their heads around” the idea of ​​doing something and not getting paid for it.

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If this trend continues, in a few short years, we no longer will have the service clubs that have existed for decades, local festivals will no longer operate and the concept of volunteering and service to the community will disappear.

When people complain about things like amalgamation in Chatham-Kent, I sometimes wonder if it is not a thinly disguised cry of despair over their loss of community, loss of ownership and loss of power within their own neighborhoods. Bigger is rarely better and when one perceives it as another nail in the coffin of community, it assumes an even more sinister mask.

As we creep into 2024, we must work at restoring our sense of community in all of Chatham-Kent. It must start in our local streets, parks, schools, churches and community halls. We must care as much about others as we do ourselves. We must stop fearing everyone and everything. We must learn to support our community’s volunteers, clubs, festivals and service clubs. We must learn to care about our neighbors, neighborhoods and local communities. We must return to those basic principles that made our community a great place to settle and inhabit in the first place.

Maybe more of us need to walk our children to school and teach by example that where we live is worth caring about, working for and making the effort to change. After all, if we don’t care for the places we live, who will?

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