THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994 TAG: 9406150189
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: John Pruitt
DATELINE: 940616 LENGTH: Medium
Even when the news is all about atrocities around the world and close to home, there are far more people doing good than we might be inclined to believe.
{REST} Even with the talk shows' diet of drivel, the good outweighs the bad.
A common complaint to newspapers and other media is that good deeds too often are taken for granted or simply ignored while the things that demonstrate just how wretched some people can be dominate the coverage. Even if that's true, we only have to think of the people who surround us to realize that a tiny minority accounts for most trouble; most do good works, far out of the limelight.
It's the routine good deeds - done as a matter of neighborliness - that keep communities thriving, not the things that are big enough or unusual enough to attract media attention. Most people make the newspaper maybe three times in their lives: when they're born, when they get married and when they die. And they like that just fine.
In an era when sense of community is diminished by all kinds of things - easy access to metropolitan areas, employment of both parents in a household, extracurricular demands - Western Tidewater is blessed with a sense of caring that takes many forms.
The area's rich rural heritage doubtlessly gets much of the credit, but the wonderful thing is that neighborliness is contagious. This is easily seen as more and more of our neighbors come from metropolitan cities. While they settle gleefully for the slower pace, they also soon enough get into the life of their community - through the PTA, civic clubs, churches and other organizations.
The very good news of all this is that, in a country where there is too much reliance on government of all levels to do and provide so many things, grass roots are thriving in these parts.
Some very disparate activities make this apparent.
In the Whaleyville section of Suffolk, volunteers from churches, the fire department and the community are completing remodeling work on a house owned by a couple whose lives were turned upside down when he suffered a stroke several years back. He has confronted several major illnesses since and is wheelchair-bound.
He had started the work himself, but the stroke ended it. And, with all the medical bills, they certainly couldn't afford more renovations.
The volunteers - from children who have filled holes and covered nail heads with compound to retirees who have painted and taken on other jobs - are transforming the structure from a vacant dwelling to a great improvement over the home the couple now occupies.
The pay? Pride in their work, knowledge that they've been good neighbors and the tremendous joy of improving the lives of worthy people.
In Franklin, a school nurse is leading a petition drive against a male dance revue that she believes to be a bad community influence.
Even if you disagree with her, you surely concede that her action reflects caring. Whereas most citizens would have only talked about it, Starr Harris put her beliefs in motion by gathering the petitions asking the City Council to prohibit the shows.
She and her supporters ask valid questions when they wonder what type of entertainment might follow and whether Franklin is willing to be a anything-goes community. Still, the impressive thing is that she dared speak out.
As long as grass roots flourish, so will caring.
by CNB