As I have grown up and learned more about responsibilities, I found that many Americans over look helping out their communities. This is an aspect that I feel all Americans should be involved with. We take the time to perfect every aspect of our lives but seem to over look the community aspect. Being active within your community can bring you many positive things, so why do we choose to not help out?
I feel there are many excuses as to why Americans are not more active in their community, the main one being that we just do not care. We live in a very detached society. I can see this just by walking around the city or riding on the muni. Everyone sits staring at their phone or computer with their headphones in. Most of the time people do not even realize the issues going on around them because of this. We simply do not take the time to look outside of our little boxes to see what is going on around us. This can cause us to become completely unaware of the negative aspects of our community. When you do take the time to look around, you see what is wrong but do not take any action. I feel this happens for two reasons; it does not affect us and/or we do not want to take the time to fix it.
Many Americans, especially those living in cities, have a good source of income. They have the money to live in a good neighborhood and take their children to good schools. Although these people may or may not be aware of the issues outside of their good schools and homes, they seem to feel that it does not affect them nor do they wish to take the time to fix it. Why spend your day off from work or school cleaning up a neighborhood. Most Americans do not enjoy working to help others on their days off because they see that as their time to work on themselves. This free time is called leisure. Leisure was created for the middle class, those who are on the wealthier side, after World War II. This time was to be spent wandering the streets doing what ever you please. No one sees this time as a moment to help out others.
The choice most Americans make to not be active within their community can affect them on a personal level. This day in age is a cold one. Hearing stories from my parents’ time are very different from ours. They knew everyone in their neighborhoods. If they needed a cup of sugar or an emergency baby sitter, they had their neighbors to back them up. Never have I grown up in a neighborhood where my family knew everyone. We have become a very apathetic society; we choose to be cold and distant from those around us. By creating this detachment from society, we are missing out on a local support group. It is a proven fact that those with support groups around them live longer. Our community should be a support group, outside our close-knit group of friends. By knowing your neighborhood and those in it, we would find that we have people to watch our backs. My boyfriend, for example, is new to his neighborhood. He is a very friendly individual who wants to know his neighbors and create a support system in that sense. The other day, a neighbor’s dog was in their front yard. Since he takes the time to walk around his neighborhood, he knew this was out of the ordinary. He went to the front door and informed the lady that her dog was out. She was very thankful because, as he knew, the dog was not supposed to be out. By him doing this, he started to make a support group. This neighbor is friendly to him and now watches out for him as well.
My boyfriend made a conscious effort to be aware of what is going on in his neighborhood. By doing this he showed that if we became more aware of what was around us we would notice the negatives and positives. The only way, I feel, we can stop this social disconnect is to become more aware. We should take the time to get to know our neighborhoods and what goes on around them. By doing this it will not only benefit ourselves but our community. When I moved to the neighborhood I live in now, I made an effort to at least walk around and go into the stores near by to see who comes in and out of my community. By doing this, I have noticed there is a gang of what looks like 13-16 year old boys. They walk around vandalizing the muni and breaking into cars. It makes me wonder why there are not any programs for these kids after school where they can have positive role models so they do not throw their lives away in a youth gang. Sadly, changing a community has to be a personal choice. We have to want to be more aware of what is going on and want to help change it.
