Solidarity and Revival of Community - Michael Sean Winters - National Catholic Reporter

 

Solidarity and the Revival of Community 

by Michael Sean Winters

If the pandemic has taught us anything as a culture, it has taught us the limits of libertarianism and the hypocrisy of those who invoke it in one area of life but ignore it in others. Here, in rural America where I live, it is not uncommon to encounter people who refuse to wear a mask. "It is my choice," they say, although the mask is not intended to help them but to help the rest of us. People say, casually, "Well, I am not worried about keeping protocols like self-quarantining, because my visitor is healthy," forgetting that the protocols do not guarantee any one individual's health, but the public health of us all.

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It has been 20 years since sociologist Robert Putnam published his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. You cannot understand the appeal of Trump, and the sense of belonging his racism is designed to foment, unless you see how correct Putnam was and is. When I left my hometown in 1980, the two churches were mostly full every Sunday, and there was an active Grange and 4-H, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, a community players troupe that performed two plays a year. When I moved back in 2017, the churches are both open but are a quarter full, the Grange has become a "community center" that is rarely used, the Scouts are still active, and there has not been a community play in 30 years. If I did not meet my neighbors walking my dog each morning and evening, where would I meet them?

Politics alone will not restore the sense of community we need to rekindle in this country. Indeed, in its current form, it further polarizes us. Our churches, like our unions, must become places where community is formed and nurtured. This is especially important for us Catholics.