I went to the Silver Grove picnic yesterday. It was a stunningly beautiful afternoon. It was made even more interesting for me because I grew up on Charlestown Road, not more than three-quarters of a mile away, and until the last few years I had not heard the designation "Silver Grove Nieghborhood". Of course I knew the streets were there, but it was not given a named status of a neighborhood. And, I did not know until just yesterday that Siver Grove had, around the time of my grandfather's birth in New Albany, begun as an independent alternative to New Albany. Thanks to Jim Munford for his brief tutorial on the history of that neighborhood.
What also struck me about the event was the fact that it was an authentic, although modest, display of community. This thread of commonality, which is really just a self-identifier of pride in where the people live, can be an example for other parts of the city. Indeed, I have been in attendance at meetings at Scribner Middle School and am aware of such meetings at S. Ellen Jones and Fairmont Schools. The purpose of these meetings is to build a sense of neighborhood and offer the schools as focal points of that sense. If all the neighborhood associations can function at the level of the Silver Grove community, I am encouraged for the city's future.
Jim Munford didn't try to portray the Association's efforts as paying unrealistically high dividends, but he did say that since the Silver Grove Association was formed, crime has decreased, poorly maintained houses are fewer and there is a recognizable sense of pride in the neighborhood.
That is precisely the strength of potential available to the entire city. New Albany's size is ideal to maximize these various efforts and to spread the benefits city-wide.
Another festival yesterday also pointed up the importance of community. My wife and I went to the Latin Festival at St. Mary's. When I was an altar boy I would have assumed such a festival would have involved recitation of the Confiteior and the Pater Noster. Today the Latin Festival is held to build community among some of the newest members of New Albany's population-the diaspora from Mexico and Latin America. The crowd was large and overwhelmingly of latin origin. My Spanish communication skills are non-existent and, in fact, many of the vendors did not speak English very well. We enjoyed some cullinary offerings and spoke to a few people we were acquainted with before the event.
This raised a question for me. Is there anyone in our local government who is able to communicate with this significant segment of our population? One of the people we spoke with last night is Lillian Rose. Her office at the old Convent at St. Mary's is called the Hispanic Connection. Her purpose is to act as a liason between the anglo and the hispanic world on many issues, some profound family problems and some mundane, such as drivers licenses etc. The sense of isolation felt by the immigrant population has some dire consequences, the most serious of which is a high rate of teen suicide. Whether you feel welcoming toward these, or any, immigrants is beside the point. They are here and we, must learn to get along. It is critical to the progress of our city.
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4 comments:
Your post leaves one to wonder two distinct points:
1. How can a community develop when its members are facing flight?
-Namely at what point do individuals invest in their community, and how does an administration accommodate for such turnover in their planning?
2. Isolation is a problem with many communities.
How do you organize a structure that includes individuals of different backgrounds, when you hold them accountable to "the norm" standards?
Case in point - ISTEP and No Child Left Behind. What does local government do for children that speak English as a second language or learn differently (A.D.D., etc.) when taking standardized tests?
Just ideas to ponder, Mr. Gonder.
anonymous:
From an economic standpoint,
if I were going to invest in something, I would prefer to invest in it before the price had escalated beyond the point where a reasonable profit could be expected. In New Albany's case that would be now.
In a community sense, you need to invest in the community all the time you are a part of it. It takes the investment of time and personal energy to form and sustain that type of community. In that sense, every community is an "intentional community".
I spoke of isolation as a function of a language barrier. I think we need to do something to help bridge the sense of detachment recent immigrants must feel.
I am not an educator and I would not presume to offer ideas in that realm.
Standardized testing is simply an example of language barrier proving a major obstacle for new folks in the community.
I think it's hard to invest in a community when you're trying your hardest to make ends meet or trying to connect with other through an obstacle.
Does the city have numbers on the Spanish-speaking population or is the demographic under the radar?
Anon,
Yes there are numbers of people in are community that speak spanish as well as many other languages not only our city as well as those surrounding us.
However there are many within our midst that are putting forth the effort to remedy the language barrier.
As it happens I discovered just yesterday that a good aquaintence of mine teaches English as a second language hereabouts.
There is also efforts made at such at the Ekin Center Boys & Girls Club here in New Albany as well as others.
My personal belief is that since we have the precedent of over 2 centurys as an English speaking nation, those that come here from afar need to learn enough to be able to conduct their day to day business affairs amoung us.
That is not to implie that they need to abandon the culture of their heritage any more than we do when we travel abroad. Rather just be able to communicate as we must when we visit elsewhere.
As to community, it takes little more than honest effort to get to know ones neighbors and establish a equitable relationship with them.
By doing so we can each learn about new skills, new languages, new recipes, and make new friends.
This is not to say that we have to kiss on the lips but we do must learn to coexist. On that juncture we have no choice save to buy either our own island in the South Pacific or a chunk of iceberg in Anartica.
All that is required is a modicum of tolerance, willingness to learn & share something new, and a wee bit of effort on the part of all partys involved.
The result of said effort can and will in many cases solve your flight, isolation and "accountability to norm" questions as well.
The"Global Community" is here to stay. Live with it, grow with it, or go the way of the dinosaur & Model T.
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