Where are We the People in all of this? That is what I have found myself wondering in recent days. In my youth, the focus was mostly local. Washington, D.C. seemed so far off. The news on TV was local. Nowadays, it seems like the inverse of all that. Washington, D.C. seems to be in the center of our orbit. When was the last time any of us watched the local news?
The danger in this shift from local issues to national issues is that it has led too many of us — We the People — to become dependent on Washington, D.C. for the changes in our lives. It is true that what is going on in D.C. right now under the Trump administration is bringing massive changes to our lives. However, it is also true that most of the pressing problems facing us are local in our communities.
My fear is that a heavy focus on D.C. will end up with far too many people doing nothing on the local level. If that were to happen, then the Trump presidency will become a wasted opportunity. Trump is only one man and he only has four years to turn around a deep state so entrenched in corruption — ideological to monetary. But We the People number the millions and what we want for the federal level should also be what we want for the local level.
Perhaps my perspective is different than most. I live and work on the South Side of Chicago and I have seen what happens to a people that has come to rely far too heavily on the government, especially on the federal level. I’ve see how far too many people surrendered their will and believed their government would come and save them. Instead, things got worse.
One can only imagine where the people in my neighborhood would be today if they had believed and invested in themselves and took charge of their local communities? Would we have the same lack of small businesses, homeownership, and lack of quality schools that we have now? I can say with absolute certainty: no.
Don’t make the mistake that we did. I have only begun to reverse this decline and restore the focus to the local level by building a massive community center and it took us 60 years to get to this point. I knew the problem facing us was local and the solution had to be local. After all, the problem lives locally, not nationally. It would seem to be common sense but when you look around America, you see how many people have forsaken their communities.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
Parents have surrendered their children to activist teachers. Parents never attended school board meetings and woke up one day to learn that these elected officials cared more about ideology than teachers. Citizens voted in local politicians with national aspirations instead of local ones. Newspapers shrunk and the local news became national. And on.
We need that local flavor back. I believe this is the missing piece in this new American mandate that the election of Trump has made possible. We must do our part on the local level. We must move outside of our home and engage with the people in our community. We must leave our echo chambers and entangle with the diversity of thought outside our doors.
Most of all, we must look to ourselves as individuals. What is our individual talent? How can we make a local impact on the individual level? I knew this woman who went to the local library every Friday and read with local children. For one year, she read with one kid. She shared her life story. He shared his. She had never met a kid from the projects. He had never met anyone who survived the Holocaust.
That kid went off to college. She still continued to go to the library every Friday and has done so for over 30 years. What started off small has grown into an effort that impacted so many in the local community. And all it took was one individual.
What are you going to do for your community today?
