Healthy Communities

Healthy Communities

This is one of the driving points of my candidacy.  One thing Waltham and Lincoln both do well is community events.  Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Concerts in the Park, Winter Carnival, etc.  These events are so important to build community and trust.  But while these events are crucial to building community, they alone are not enough.  These events draw us together for special occasions, schools, churches, sports teams and social service activities also pull us together and these too are critical ingredients to healthy communities.  Land conservation, exercise and wise food choices are important, arts and music are important, we are also good and getting better at these activities.

Dialogue

At what point, in what location do we get together to actually discuss difficult issues?  There are some church groups and educational groups that do host discussion groups and there are some civic organizations that approach difficult topics.  But where do we all get together and hash out issues?  Where do we all get together and discuss mental health parity or class or climate change?  Where do we all, people of all stripes and sizes come together and decide for ourselves, for our communities, what is important to us and what kind of community we want to be?  We read the paper and listen to the news.  We post on FaceBook and Twitter and Redit when something of interest propels us to ‘action’.  But then what.  What do we do with all these great thoughts we find and carefully display for our friends and perhaps our friends friends to see?

Transparency

How do we know what is happening in our communities?  Meetings are posted in city and town halls and perhaps posted on the local website.  The weekly newspaper or the local online squirrel or patch might tell us what they know to tell us.  But how do we really know.  If we are interested in an issue, lets say casinos, and we want to know how our local legislators feel about casinos and how they voted on the issue, how do we find that out?  If there is a housing voucher coming available in our area, how do we know?  Where is this information made accessible to us?  And in what language(s)?  Only English? Or Haitian Creole? Spanish? Portugues?  How do we as a community find out what is important to us?  Is there a way to sign up for the information?  Are there office hours scheduled so we can go and speak to our elected officials?

Neighbors

How do we know when our neighbor needs help?  Do we know our neighbor? Once, years ago when I was still living in Attleboro, I was walking and when I got to about a half mile down my street a woman came out of her house begging for help.  She said she was hungry.  I stopped and talked with her.  She said she had the money but not the transportation to get to the store and would I go and purchase the items she had on a list.  I did as she asked and thereafter I stopped by occasionally and bought her supplies.  I noticed that she always requested several pounds of pasta.  I also noticed she would never let me in the kitchen to help her put the food away, I had to leave it on the table.  One day I snuck a peak and her cupboard was overloaded with pasta.  

A short time later she was taken away in an ambulance and I lost track of her.  I have never forgotten her and often have wondered it it was a case of mental illness, loneliness, eccentricity; I will never know but I have never regretted offering to help her and have only wished I had done more.  

More recently I noticed emergency vehicles down the street at a neighbor’s house here in Lincoln.  He was a peculiar man, not taken to speaking to neighbors and in fact had several signs posted around the perimeter of his lawn suggesting in strong words that we steer clear.  Being a good catholic school girl I did just that.  But now, now that there were all these vehicles there I got to wondering.  I hadn’t seen any activity there in a while, hadn’t noticed the clothesline with which he blocked entrance to his driveway when he left the premises being missing for quite some time.  Turns out my neighbor died that night.  Alone.  With us right across down the street not even knowing him.  

I have another neighbor I have known for years.  Not well, but certainly friendly enough to chat when I see her and carpool our kids around.  It is only recently I found out she is a victim of domestic violence.

We need each other.  We need permission and opportunity to work together to help each other.  We need to figure out ways to make ourselves available to our community to both offer our friendship and receive the friendship of our neighbors.