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| Craig E. Lafferty |
Dear Friends,
Reaching a certain age in life allows one to begin to explore new ideas and to some degree, develop eccentricities. As I like to say when someone mentions age, “Hey I represent that remark,” I grew-up in the 60’s, listening constantly to rock-n-roll and the protest songs of the era. I remember when I went away to college, I thought that my generation would change the world. Some considerable years later, some things have changed, but not the world.
One of the eccentricities that I have recently developed is listening to country music. I have been known to remark that everything you need to know about life and the world can be found in country western songs (as well as in editorial cartoons).
With this in mind, I want to quote a few lyrics from a song by Martina McBride –Love’s the Only House:
“You drive three miles from all this prosperity.
Down across the river and you see a ghetto there.
An’ we got children walking around with guns.
And they got knives and drugs and pain to spare.
And here I am in my clean, white shirt,
With a little money in my pocket and a nice warm home.
And we got teenagers walking around in a culture of darkness.
Living together - alone ... all I could say is,
Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain in the world.
And I can’t explain it, and I can’t understand it.
But I’ll come down and get my hands dirty and together we’ll make a stand.”
Today is the day we need to take a collective stand about what is wrong in our world. Today we need to reach across the divides in our communities and find the common ground that unites us. We are losing another generation of children to drugs and violence. We are relegating our collective future to the grim prospect of despair.
The wealth of a nation is in the communities we build and sustain. It is so easy to forget about the pain and suffering. To climb into our car, turn on the radio, and tune out the real world. Oh, occasionally you will read something in a newspaper, but by-and-large, we go about our daily lives without thinking about others outside our immediate family.
In Bill McKibben’s book Deep Economy, he writes of “hyper-individualism”, a syndrome that seems to have affected countless numbers of people across this nation, and even around the world. Person after person has developed this affliction. The very notion seems hard to comprehend. We have moved from working collectively to improve the community, to “what is in it for me.” The idea of greater good has moved to “what’s good for me.”
This is taking its toll in our communities. We no longer act in the ways of our parents and grand-parents. Tom Brokaw in his book
The Greatest Generation describes the sacrifices of those coming of age in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. Parents wanted life to be better for their children and for the neighbors’ kids as well … joining the PTA, helping at a community agency … the list is endless.
Giving to the community has also been impacted. Today many contributors want to direct their gifts to agencies that serve their interests and needs – often forgetting about the greater needs of the community. Hyper-individualism is impacting United Way’s ability to respond to the needs of the larger community.
I hope that you will think about what you can do to ease the pain and suffering being experienced by many in our midst. In this land of prosperity, we also have vast deserts of hopelessness. The oasis of Community First is nearly dry – replacing it is a shallow well of “me first.” You have the power to change this. You have the resources to replenish the oasis and push back the desert.
The greatest gift to our community is your unrestricted gift to the United Way’s Community Impact Fund. Together, we can still change the world. It’s not too late.
Thanks for caring,
Craig E. Lafferty
President and CEO
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There are lots of numbers that are easy to remember. Everyone knows 9-1-1 in case of an emergency. And of course 4-1-1 when you need the number of a friend that you cannot find on those scrap pieces of paper we all keep. What about 2-1-1? Never heard of 2-1-1? Well this is the number to find health and human service help in any community across the state of New Jersey. Try calling 2-1-1 … it is really easy. You can make the call from any telephone (land-line or cellular). When your call is answered, you will find a friendly and knowledgeable call specialist to help you. The call specialist can help you find in-home healthcare services, day care for your child, financial assistance with your rent – the list is nearly endless. So the next time you need help or if you know someone who needs help, please dial 2-1-1. It’s so easy, and it’s a service of your local United Way.