Daily writing prompt
What do you do to be involved in the community?
As a down-to-earth citizen, within my lifelong community, I don’t believe I’m all alone in feeling frequent dismay re notoriously partisan and petty local government. After all, as more and more local newspapers are going belly up, there are few, if any, journalists / bloggers left to cover that “beat”.
As such, flying under the radar, under-reported small municipalities are too often run / ruined by pie-in-the-sky, two-faced, self-serving politicians who, in their hallucinatory haze, believe their respective city hall council chambers to be situated, ya know, “just down the street” from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’s Oval Office. Yep, echoes of those ol’ Hail to the Chief ruffles and flourishes just keep on burrowing into their brains; uh, not unlike how an earworm does?
Additionally, it’s my own historical perspective, which continues to serve me well. This does remind me of bygone, foolhardy (perhaps greedy), myopic city planners who, in turn, had welcomed similarly affected developers, who, in turn, citified floodplain farmland into the very subdivision where, back in 1961, my parents, sister and I had foolishly settled.
As such, I’m still haunted by memories of the Flood of June 25, 1968, which had drained into many a neighborhood basement / ground level floor. As for our family homestead, this involved ankle deep, sludgy H2O ruining our cellar and, in turn, forever disturbing / destabilizing our sense of security.
Had that torrential downpour lasted, oh, say, for 40 days and 40 nights, we may have even witnessed the birth of Michigan’s 6th Great Lake.
It was in spite of that situation (more likely because of it) that I did undergo a change for the better. In essence, it taught me how vital community spirit truly is. It was whilst working towards that goal that something suddenly dawned on me. I asked myself…
“Why wait to extend a helping hand in times of trouble, when it’d be far wiser to ward off those troubled times, beforehand?”
Suffice to say, that thought birthed my game plan. Throughout the years, and to this very day, my community involvement has centered on acting preemptively to eradicate flooding threats to our neighborhood’s safety and well-being. I accomplish this feat via voluntarily (unknowingly?) lending a helping hand to our likely overworked and understaffed Department of Public Works; regularly providing my assist to their upkeep of the storm water drainage system.
During the spring / summer months I help ensure that wind / rainstorm downed branches / twigs, as well as my neighbors’ / my own lawn mower clippings, never cover / clog the gutter grates. I also keep a similar watchful eye re fall’s leaves and winter’s snow piles / ice packs. Oh, btw, it matters not that my labors likely go unrecognized by these workers / my neighbors, alike.
So, have I ever made a difference? Who knows? After all, it’d take shirking my gutter clearing duties to precipitate a flood. And, obviously, that’s something I’d never, ever do just to, foolishly, prove such a point.
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Be humans Vaxxed OR Unvaxxed, We
can still shed and spread the batcrap
crazy contagious coronavirus which,
in turn, spawns new variants; which,
in turn, could, eventually, render the
available vaccines worthless; which,
in turn, will drag out the pandemic’s
needless suffering, illness and death!
HENCE… this easy as pie, cover your
nose and pie-hole/hole-up heads-up:
Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!
-30-
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CommonSenseTom 