COMMENT: What Occupies our time? What Occupies our thoughts?

Have you noticed that engagement in community activities is becoming a rare and less frequently observed reality of everyday life? While the demise of voluntary organizations and the advancing average age of the remaining volunteers seems a clear and present reality in almost every walk of life, nowhere does it seem so evident as in our engagement in the body politic. As vital as the decision making processes of government are to every aspect of life and living, modern folk seem unwilling to take the time to even cast a ballot, let alone participate in public discourse.

It's the bane of every commentator, the curse of every civic process--the lack of engagement, the miniscule turnout (not just at the polls, but in consultative process, town hall meetings, and so on). Attendance can be strong at the big issue meetings where content and contribution can be limited to venting one’s emotional spleen, but what suffers is the mundane, the average, the minutiae, the day-to-day details of how we do and why we do and where we do and when we do.

Almost no one 'has the time' for any of that. Talk shows, newscasts, elected officials, and political scientists all comment on the dire state of engagement and bemoan the fate of a social system that cannot command the attention of those it serves.

And then, out of the blue, like a bolt from heaven, for no apparent reason, like the answer to the prayers of those seeking the participation and interaction of dedicated, committed, discerning citizens who want to give deeply of themselves to their community, comes not one group but tens, and hundreds and thousands of groups of people who are willing to stop their lives completely in the interests of building a better world.

They are willing to stand in one spot long enough to truly consider, discuss, listen, hear, solve and resolve the issues of our day. Their ranks are not closed, but are open to all who will come, however and whenever they come. It's like an answer to a prayer.

And what do we do? How do our leaders respond? By ruing the day they sat down to pray for engagement in the first place. By bringing in the bylaw enforcement officers, the fire departments, the police and the army if necessary. Because this kind of engagement is anarchy. Because these kinds of people are not the ones we had in mind.

Have you noticed the engagement in community is becoming a rare and less frequently observed reality in everyday life?

Keith Simmonds is a diaconal minister in the Communities in Faith Pastoral Charge serving Beaver Valley, Rossland, Salmo and Trail.