Recently, we spent well over two hours deciding on the Rotary Student of the Year Scholarship. My favorite meetings of that organization would be presentations of Student of the Month awards. When we get older, we so easily fall into a chorus of complaint of the changes, few of which we like, in youth. Nothing so wipes the slate clean as hearing of the stunning lists of accomplishments of our award recipients. i was utterly serene in the meeting as I felt that we could not make a bad decision for our award. We could have given it to 8 or 10 young people, and I would have been pleased with the quality of our recipient. Not only are they remarkably intelligent and hard-working, the students have an astonishing number of community service activities.
Also, I was privileged to attend the local YWCA Women of Distinction award ceremony this week. I was delighted to attend an event where the significant social contributions of local women were honored. I loved the diversity of the those honored:: from a therapist, to a nursing professor, to a champion of those struggling with cancer, to a police officer.The public sector was also noted by a school board official.
So much good work goes unrecognized or on the periphery of awareness. So much crying need exists that does not register. One of the impressive things about the honorees is their refusal to give into inertia or despair, but in rolling up their sleeves to do battle against often intractable problems. I knew that a the Methodist church in Upper Alton organized a feeding program for summer lunches. i did not know that they seek to serve 5 elementary schools whose subsidized lunch recipient number over 70% of enrollment. I had no idea that 100 people are organized to provide that basic human need of food. A contributing factor in so many of our social problems has to be the baleful effects of poverty of individuals and the so-called culture of poverty that places such limits on aspirations, attitudes, and behaviors toward social upward mobility. While education is vital in our technically sophisticated society, it is not a magic wand. Education struggles to create citizens who face so many daunting challenges.
That took my thoughts to the need for organization. It is probably impossible to try to do the kind of work of these women alone. It requires joint effort. It also requires the organization of getting disparate people and interests together for efficiency and effectiveness sake. In our time, we constantly criticize organizations and institutions, but good causes are subject to burnout in their best people when they try to shoulder too much of the load themselves.
I was forcefully reminded of the importance of public and private partnerships in our land. A number of the folks work for public agencies but are members of private agencies and the obverse holds as well. Volunteers help shape the social fabric of a community.
I also thought of Sec. Clinton’s much derided proverb that “it takes a village to raise a child.” I do not wish to get into partisan insanities here, but to point out how the care of our children is, increasingly, an endeavor that takes the involvement of a community. The different causes almost outlined the array of forces that stalk our young people. It would seem that a concerted community effort is required to battle the evil cavalry that assaults them daily. Not only is no one an island, we are all connected.
May those who work so diligently for public purposes know that they are doing good, human work. May their awards encourage them to keep up their efforts, to discover pools of patience and perseverance even they did not suspect would lie within.
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