Guest Column: A rallying cry for community

Published 12:30 am Thursday, April 2, 2020

In 2009, I was working on a disaster recovery project for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. I had a General Services Administration contract and my little company set up information technology systems for large government agencies and the military.

To be used only in the worst-case scenarios, these networks and systems allowed critical personnel to securely work from anywhere, using any device, on any connection. Those systems were the technical ancestors of the software you may be using today to do remote work and video chat with friends and family.

While we built plans for the critically needed personnel for pandemic response, we didn’t build plans for everyone else.

Now that we are actually in a pandemic, with the potential for long periods of social isolation for a substantial portion of society, it will be vital that every community in isolation begin working to augment local government plans with some grassroots organizing.

Our front-line workers have their hands full right now. They will need our help with the rest.

Every community has people with nonemergency situations that will require some assistance during this pandemic. Those same communities are full of wonderful people with unique skills and capabilities who can help.

We need to figure out how to get the word out, gather the information, communicate and connect those with need to those with the skill and ability, safely. Wouldn’t it be great to see social media used for something to help pull people together? Wouldn’t it feel good to be doing something that helped somebody who really needed it? Wouldn’t it be great if you could get some help if you need it in the middle of all this insanity?

It’s a very stressful time. Our nation has been deeply divided in many ways. History tells us, though, that a cataclysmic event or disaster often pulls divided people together, because they worked together side by side against a common threat. We need to work together.

Now is the time.

There are those among us who can make community pages on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and the like to connect the need to the help. We must use good faith, and good judgment, with good intentions. We will have to make some of it up as we go along, but if we come together — while, still socially distant — to help each other, our emotional states, health and wellness will benefit. Our community will benefit.

If you use some social media platform and you want to help, say so and connect! If you want to organize, say so and connect! If you want to help but don’t know how, say so and connect! If you write letters to editors and you think this is a good idea, amplify it! If you are an organization wanting to help and need connection, say so and connect! If you are a charity and need help, say so and connect!

If you are a communication partner, if you blog, if you podcast and you want to help, say so and connect! If you can make YouTube how-to videos for people who need help, say so and connect! If you have a good or service that you would trade for another, say so and connect!

If we can focus on the well-being of our neighbors and help those who need it now, we will be a vital part of our community’s response and recovery team. Let us reach out to one another now. Let us get to know each other now. Let us help one another now. Let us treat each other with courtesy, kindness and respect.

Let us be known as the community that survived this horrible pandemic, with the help and hope from each other.

Together we can build community connections for:

• Sewing hospital gowns and masks for those hospitals who need them.

• Tutoring/mentoring students over internet.

• Connecting those in need to mental health assistance.

• Food donation, preparation, distribution for those in the most urgent need.

• Phone conversation with another person while all this is going on.

• Conducting wellness checks on seniors or people who live alone.

• Organize and assist in very specific community giving campaigns.

• Gathering information on skill sets of local volunteers.

• Assistance in connecting people to resources in the community.

• Safely running necessary errands for others … and so much more.

We are America. Let us act like it.