Friday, July 13, 2012

BUILDING COMMUNITY


While traveling around we picked up a newspaper from Hillcrest, a community just north of downtown San Diego and Balboa Park. One article caught our eye. Two long-time residents of the neighborhood were moving and the paper printed a tribute as well as “Ann and Nancy’s Ways to Build a Better Community.”  Here are the ways:

Turn off your TV
Leave your house
Know your neighbors
Greet people
Look up when you’re walking
Fly your flag with pride
Ask for help when you need it
Sit on your stoop
Plant flowers
Use your library
Hire young people for odd jobs
Play together
Buy from local merchants
Share what you have
Help a lost dog
Take children to the park
Honor elders
Have potlucks
Support neighborhood schools
Fix it even if you didn’t break it
Help carry something heavy
Garden together
Pick up litter
Read stories aloud
Dance in the street
Talk to the mail carrier
Listen to the birds
Barter for your goods
Start a tradition
Ask a question
Organize a block party
Bake extra and share
Share your skills
Take back the night
Turn up the music
Turn down the music
Listen before you react in anger
Mediate a conflict
Seek to understand
Learn from new and uncomfortable angles
Seek to hear the unheard

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