Building a Community

I recently came into possession of a collection of photographs from the 1990s, which included some Cass City residents. Though I recognized many of those pictured, there were several I could not identify.

So, to the “You Know You’re From Cass City If...” Facebook page I went.

Within minutes, members of the group — Cass Cityans both past and present — chimed in: “That’s so and so. Oh, I remember her! That man was the best neighbor. I have fond memories of that couple.”

By the next day, nearly everyone was identified.

Several people commented that looking through the pictures was a walk down memory lane. Others noted that the people pictured were integral parts of their younger lives, and they shared memories of what made those people so dear to them.

Sandi Doyen Rosteutcher’s comment was particularly striking. She wrote, “You know what I love about this? So many people knew who so many of these people were. I knew many faces but I forget names. But my point is that in our little town, there was such a spirit of community. Sad to say that I live in (a) subdivision, and I can’t tell you the name of one neighbor. And they couldn’t tell you mine. Very sad the way much of our world is now.”

I’ve been thinking about Sandi’s comment all week. She’s right. Living in a municipality is not the same thing as being a part of a community, any more than living next door to someone makes you a true neighbor.

In recent years, Americans have segregated themselves from one another and have created “communities” along ideological lines, where groupthink often prevails. But such groups are not communities at all.

Rather, what makes a community a community is the will of its people to interact with one another, in spite of their differences and the occasional difficulties of living alongside those different from ourselves.

It is not enough to share a zip code or a voting precinct. Nor is the occasional wave as we take out the trash sufficient. Building a community requires the hard work of neighboring, of shoveling one another’s driveways, of sharing holidays and birthdays with people to whom we’re not related. In short, it means giving a hoot for the guy next door.

Cass City has, historically, been a community in the true sense of the word. The memories people shared on the Cass City Facebook page about those pictured are evidence that ours has never been a mere place to live.

Here, people care about one another.

Still, vigilance is in order. To paraphrase President Ronald Reagan, community is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.

Indeed, it is difficult to think of a time in American history when real community has been more difficult to cultivate and maintain than it is now.

Robert D. Putnam, political scientist at Harvard University, notes that changes in technology, economics, and the social fabric have wreaked havoc on American communities. As he writes, this is “shorthand for saying that things like television, two-career family, [and] generational changes have made fewer of us go on picnics, join the Rotary or hang out at the bar.”

It seems Putnam is right. Streaming services keep us from gathering at the Cass Theatre. Outsourcing and virtual workplaces prevent us from water-cooler conversations at local factories. Our abandonment of the pursuit of truth renders church attendance and Sunday school picnics
obsolete. And the shift from Main Street shops to Amazon.com means we do not bump into each other at the store anymore — indeed, there is no store in which to bump.

Though it seems the days when places like Kritzmans Clothing Store and McConkey Jewelry and Gift Shop are likely behind us, it does not mean that communities are things of the past, too.

Communities must be fought for, which requires some intentional decisions:

*To join a civic club instead of spending Thursday nights binge watching Netflix.

*To attend village council and school board meetings — not for the sake of arguing, but for being informed and involved.

*To be aware of the needs our neighbors face and to look for ways to meet them ourselves.

*To actively participate in those functions of community we do have—parades and fundraisers and concerts and funerals and celebrations and downtown beautification projects.

It won’t be easy. But judging by the comments made about the photographs of some of Cass City’s former residents, the value of a vibrant community, and those who shape it, is incalculable.