In class today, we discussed the topic of the public good. Through networking, it is possible to create a personal relationship with various members of society and take small steps toward a public good. In this aspect, relationships work towards improving the quality of life through the interaction of many. A passion for this type of networking is essential to keep it going and to make it successful.
Erin and I were wondering about everyone’s take on achieving the public good, and how to go about it. More importantly, we want to know the networks (geared towards the public good) in which everyone has been involved. We’re taking the idea of achieving the public good, and making it more personal for everyone in the class. It would be nice to know each of our personal passions.
We would like a small comment on how to go about achieving the public good, and a personal story of a philanthropy, community group, or volunteer organization that is close to your heart. Tell us a little bit about the group, about your involvement, and why it is so important you.
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To explain my interpretation of the public good, I have a little story to tell: A very good friend of mine has been working as a lifeguard for the past six years. He attempted to go though college but didn’t have the money to complete his final year. He had considered moving to Boulder where he had been offered a very nice scholarship and could finally continue studying his passion – music. He first had this opportunity several years ago but had been persuaded by his family to avoid the move. They said he wouldn’t make it, Boulder would be too hard one him and that it was best to stay in Durango even if that meant working indefinitely as a lifeguard. This year my friend dismissed their advice and moved to Boulder. I am convinced that he finally made this decision because, this time, he had an abundance of friends who encouraged him to move ahead with his life. Their support bolstered his confidence enough to step into the unknown.
People can maintain negative or positive perspectives and such views will influence those around them. Just as excitement can spread through a group, so can pessimism and dreadful moods. In the case of my friend, the misery of others convinced him to place his life on hold for years. Constructive and hopeful views helped him move forward again.
I believe the best way to commit oneself to the public good is to have a healthy outlook on life. As we have discussed in previous blogs, people are social creatures. We constantly look to each other for support, comparison and a sense of belonging. If you can accept this to be true, imagine the benefits you can bring to others if you chose to be an upbeat person.
Not to forget the last portion of our questions for this blog, I have been involved in community service for most of my life. I joined scouting in first grade and continued to stay active in the program until the end of my senior year in high school. I don’t have any particularly philanthropic stories to tell. Anyone can write a check to Red Cross and say they are humanitarian. I stayed in scouting because I had fun, helping people was just a fortunate result.
I have a bit of a different take on the idea of the public good. You have said that you are taking the idea of achieving the public good to a more personal level, but I'm not really sure if I feel that this is entirely possible. Let me explain.
For me, the idea of the public good is a sort of distant, impersonal concept. In fact, when I think of the public good, I think of it as somewhat ambiguous. The public good is what benefits the public, on an incredibly basic level, but what benefits one individual will not necessarily benefit another. The difficulty in defining the public good therefore arises - how can something truly benefit all members of the public?
I could basically be called an existentialist (not to be confused with nihilist), which may account for what I'm about to say next. I am of the mindset that the individual is the most important, and one must make oneself happy and content with the life one is living before that individual can effectively help anyone else. I feel that, as selfish as this may sound, the most that one can do in terms of the public good is to live the life that makes the individual happy. By being happy, that individual has truly contributed to the public good in a way that no time spent at an organization can contribute to it. Think about it - if that individual is unhappy and discontent with his lot in life but still works at some wonderful nonprofit organization, how is that going to benefit either the people around him or himself?
I suppose I just completely contradicted myself - achieving the public good is evidently the most personal task of all.
Call me a horrible person, but I personally do not have a particular story through which I can project my idea of the public good. I do not have any inspiring anecdotes about an enlightening philanthropic experience. I don't really even have a record of continuous voluntary..well, volunteering to my name.
In light of all this, I agree with Courtney. The public good cannot fall entirely in the sphere of the individual. As demonstrated by what I said above, most individuals are inherently quite selfish. To place the maintenance of the public good solely in the hands of isolated and individual members of society would surely only lead to its downfall.
I believe the public good is born of a common guilt which leads the formation of associations. The tendency of individuals to form communities leads to the generation of guilt. Guilt of inaction, guilt of selfishness, guilt of unfamiliarity with their common man. Communal guilt thus leads to actions which maintain the public good. Alone, individuals are near powerless to enact change in the community. They are often motionless to enact this change whether they realize this powerlessness. It is only when people come together that they bring about the manifestation of the public good.
As I was growing up, I was spoon fed generic views of world piece: the commercials to feed kids in Africa, the posters that advertise stopping war, the Miss America "world peace" plea. I guess all I can say is that these pleas have desensitized me. Sure it is great to want all these things, but simply wishing them away or going to sit-ins or donating a bit of money doesn't change the world. We have been doing it for years. And frankly all of these problems have persisted.
That is why I prefer a hands on approach to community service, a direct interaction with the people I am helping. Project Angelheart does this okay–we do meet some of the clients and make their food, if rather limited–but I prefer even more direct interaction. Habitat for Humanity is one that I would prefer to work with. Whether this is simply because I love building things and working with my hands or not isn't the point. With Habitat, the volunteers have a strong hand in ensuring people have shelter. You can actually see the effects after the project is done.
More than that, though, is that while you work you often have a chance to meet the people who are going to be living there. In one instance I was working for Habitat out in Aurora. While at the job site, I didn't simply work alongside other volunteers. I worked with the people who were going to live in the house. The Gonzalez family had to work on the house they were to be given, and talking to them about their lives and helping them finish their new house gave me a feeling that I was helping the public good. Even though it was only one family, it felt like for once we were making progress towards the public good: I could see the effects, know that I had a hand in it, and together these increased the public good, on a communal level.
I feel like the public good is everyone using their own abilities in order to impress upon the world something positive. I guess the whole be-happy-to-make-the-world-happy idea is confusing to me.
Erin H. and I were talking about our “best days” a few weeks back and after I had sorted through fun days and surprising days and happy days, I landed on my best day.
It was Thanksgiving Day, 2005 and my dad and I, along with the rest of the relief crew, were standing outside the 2-story house in Chalmette. This piece of New Orleans received 15 feet of standing water during Katrina
(that’s four feet high on the second floor),
standing water that remained for two weeks after the hurricane had past. For those 14 days, thousands of homes in New Orleans were life-sized aquariums.
When we opened the front door of the house it was like walking into a horror movie. I don’t exaggerate, there is something about seeing an inhabitance so desecrated it makes you want to throw up.
The ceiling had long since dissolved, leaving evenly-spaced beams above. A pulp of fiberglass and drywall was on the floor and the paint was peeling itself in sheets from walls. Once-waterlogged furniture lay limp and warped; the blades of the wooden ceiling fan were pointing downward.
We spent the day clearing the interior of the house, moving all belongings so that it could be completely gutted the following day. At least 95% of the things pulled from the house had to be thrown on curb/street under the hopes that a garbage truck would basically have to stop there and do his job if he wanted to drive any farther down the road.
Being in the house was terrifying. We were the first people to enter since its bodies-of-the-deceased inspection three months earlier. And I have never felt so empowered, enlightened, animated, interested, focused, understanding, worldly, intimate, learned, fortunate, passionate, and real as I did that day, carrying closet mirrors and soggy sweaters to that curb.
I’m not trying to be some pompous volunteering-prick; going to New Orleans doesn’t give me saint-status, I’m quite aware of how much more that city helped me than I helped it. But I just have to hope that happiness is not the be-all end-all.
If I wanted to be completely happy in life itself I would buy a boat and travel the world, doing whatever I pleased.
That would make me HAPPY.
But then when Erin calls me up and I’m sitting in the sun, fishing off the coast of Bermuda, I would be able to tell her about millions of HAPPY days, but no new BEST day.
I don’t know, maybe it’s only me. I have just always felt that we have more to offer the world than our own happiness.
The public good goes hand in hand with civic virtue, which can be defined in many different ways depending on who is asked. Being an international studies student, I believe that public good and civic virtue is achieved through the development of voluntary associations. These voluntary associations can be for any sort of cause, but the purpose of them must be in order to serve others. My best act of creating a voluntary association was when I was a high school sophomore.
I was a member of the JV soccer team and when we were turning in our jerseys at the end of the season, we were informed that a member of our team had experienced a reoccurrence of osteosarcoma. After hearing this I decided that I was going to be proactive in trying to help him and his family get through this difficult time. I settled on a 3v3 basketball tournament to raise money. From that point, I worked hard for three months trying to garner community support and sponsorships. Then on January 20 the tournament occurred. There was excellent turnout and over $5500 ended up going to the family.
I feel that this exhibited an activity for the public good because it both raised awareness about childhood cancer and because so many people got involved that it helped unite the community.
Although the idea can easily be taken for granted, I think that the only way to ultimately achieve “the public good” is through the activism of every individual’s strengths in a way that directly benefits one or more people within the community. For example, when I was a club swimmer in high school, our team had the opportunity to partner with the “Adaptive Swimming Program”—an organization that paired high school athletes and young people with physical and/or mental handicaps. I was paired with a seven-year old athlete with cerebral palsy—Hannah—who was simply unstoppable in the swimming pools. Every Saturday morning, she would arrive at the swimming pool with the sweetest smile, and I remember looking forward to seeing the excitement in her eyes and hearing her endearing laugh. Hannah loved learning to float, kick, and duck under water; I loved our lessons because she was such a joy to teach, and I was passionate about the sport.
I use this example because I think that each one of us has something very specific to offer our community that will contribute to the “public good.” For example, if a given student is passionate about politics, their work on a political campaign is focused on improving the community through change: is this not contributing to the “public good”? Similarly, is not a highly skilled musician who plays music at a nursing home, for example, contributing to the “public good” as well? I think that each of us has one or two unique gifts that we can share with the community around us, and in order to ultimately reach the ideal of “the public good”, every member of society must utilize their talents in a way that benefits others.
Like Lauren, I have a past history of involuntary volunteerism, and very little to say about it that would be the kind of personal and heartwarming thing we seem to be looking for here.
In an early post, I mentioned delivering meals at a very young age with my mother to elderly people. The client I remember most vividly, and spoke about in a previous post, was an artist named Lauren who appeared to have suffered several strokes. I remember Lauren because he gave me some of his old oil paints, since art was my passion at that time. It was difficult for him to talk and perform simple tasks, but he continued to paint as much as his twisted, shaking fingers would allow.
Bear with me: I do have a point here. I was able to relate to Lauren on a very personal, individual level that was absent in all my future volunteering experience. From our interaction came a kind of spiritual "good" for both of us that I think translates into a larger, more tangible good.
I agree with Cristina about looking at the public good on a smaller scale. To some extent, I think the Putnam reading “What makes Democracy Work” supports the idea of the public good beginning on an almost microscopic level. Putnam talked a lot about “Choral Societies” leading to effective democracy….but what leads to Choral Societies? Two or more people taking the time to enter into a conversation and discover they have a shared interest in singing, that’s what! A very basic level of human interaction needs to take place before we can start looking at the more abstract, “bigger picture” idea of the public good.
Think about it: if we view the public good in this way, every conversation, every text message, every email, and every moment of eye contact counts toward something much larger…kind of scary, isn’t it?
I would like to fully agree with Alyssa when she said that each of us has specific interests and talents that we can easily use to add to the “public good.” I have been riding horses for many years, and for most of high school I volunteered at a horseback riding center for the handicapped. It was there that I met an amazing guy named Frank. I never knew what Frank’s exact diagnosis was, but he had immense difficulty walking and wore leg braces. Frank was the most personable and observant 12 year old I have ever met. Each week he amazed me with his jokes and charismatic personality. I didn’t know 30 year olds with that kind of sharp wit, much less kids!
I agree with the fact that humans are inherently selfish. However, humans are inherently lots of undesirable traits. It could be argued that we are inherently lazy, inherently evil, and inherently vengeful. Yet we overcome our “inherent” traits every day. We make little sacrifices and little decisions all the time that drown out these inherent vices.
Heck, I never really wet my pants with excitement when I knew I was going to lead a biting horse around a cold arena for 5 hours. But for some reason I worked up the motivation to go, week after week, accumulating 100+ hours. On the way home though, thinking about a funny story Frank had told me that night, it was worth it.
I think that all people want to help others in some way, it’s just that not all of us have found the right medium through which to do it yet.
The idea of the public good is a rather difficult one for me to define. What is "good" to one person may not be considered good to another, and this makes doing service for the 'public good' rather difficult. However, my favorite memory of community service and one that has especially touched my heart was the mission trip I participated in before my senior year. In conjunction with my friend's church, I travelled to Port Renfrew, British Colombia. This town is the Canadian equivalent of our Indian reservations, and we spent almost two weeks there simply playing with the children and cleaning up the town. I have never seen so many smiles or so much laughter as I did during that trip. The children were so excited to have people around them that cared enough to give them attention. Their parents, for the most part and with few exceptions, seem uninterested in their child's lives. Unfortunately, that's the reality and the children grow up at a very young age and learn to survive on their own.
I guess, that this (in my mind) is a good example of the public good, because everyone benefitted especially the children. We were able to grow as servants through helping the families and trying to understand the parent's lifestyles. The children were able to garnish some attention, enjoy shoulder rides and get help to cross the monkey bars. The older youth was able to see an example of people who were not settling for a life they didn't want to be a part of.
The coolest thing about this project, is that throughout its journey, obvious change is occurring. Last summer, there was a clear difference in the town. Adults were actually taking their children to the playground. Children were no longer cursing like little sailors. The town was cleaner. The children are growing up and the town is getting back on its feet.
The little amount of time and assistance that we were able to give this town is slowly making a big difference and this difference is certainly a welcome change.
Sarai Glass wrote:
To be honest, I do not currently have a specific philanthropy, community group, or organization that I am involved with. However, in high school, I was very devoted to a church youth group that was involved in two particular services that stirred my heart, the first being serving lunches to the homeless. My church was located in central downtown Colorado Springs, and presumably there was a vast homeless population. Serving food to the homeless seemed so simple, such an easy thing to do. However, the reason it touched me was because of the relationships we started to develop with the homeless. Rather than treating them as objects of a huge social issue of America, we shared food, conversation, and human interaction. Another service that I much enjoyed was traveling to Mexico to provide for a small Mexican community. The first trip I had consisted of the building of a small home for a homeless family. They were hardly located in what I would call a community, however, seeing t
he impact on this miniature community of a family, was moving. They felt so blessed to have a place to cover their heads, a place to call home. And you could see a newly added glow on their faces. I suppose I had a passion for those without a home. Home is a very important thing to have, whether it be a close knitting of friends, or your family. Even a physical place that can be called home can be important. Working with those who didn’t have a physical place or oftentimes even a community to call home, and building a home for a family, without a physical home, was touching. I learned a lot about what my home meant and was to me. I will never again take for granted the different people and places I can call home because of these experiences.
The concept of the public good is not something that can be looked up in a dictionary or encapsulated in a few sentences. The concept of the public good is something that changes from one person to another, based on the individuals position in society and background. Some believe that benefiting the public good must be completed in their own neighborhood, while others think of it as an international effort. Some count the lives saved (numerically easier in the 3rd world) while others look for the families and children that they have been able to make smile. I personally believe that the bang for the buck is much greater overseas but that domestic effort benefits those we ought to truly care more about much. I have participated in numerous aid organizations, but have only a small concept of what the public good truly is. I have been to Siberia with Operation Smile, helped build two churches, one house, and put in many hours for other charities but do not know that I have truly benefited the public good very much at all. My hours of service were mainly loaded onto my back by forward-thinking parents and others could have dome a better job at everything I've done. Im not sure why im so pessimistic about the public today, but I don't think it is really teenagers' job to worry about the public good. I value the experience I have had with volunteering, but do not believe that I am old or experienced enough to judge what is truly beneficial. That is why we have generals in war and bosses at work, because it is not up to the inexperienced to decide the nature of things.
The concept of the public good is not something that can be looked up in a dictionary or encapsulated in a few sentences. The concept of the public good is something that changes from one person to another, based on the individuals position in society and background. Some believe that benefiting the public good must be completed in their own neighborhood, while others think of it as an international effort. Some count the lives saved (numerically easier in the 3rd world) while others look for the families and children that they have been able to make smile. I personally believe that the bang for the buck is much greater overseas but that domestic effort benefits those we ought to truly care more about much. I have participated in numerous aid organizations, but have only a small concept of what the public good truly is. I have been to Siberia with Operation Smile, helped build two churches, one house, and put in many hours for other charities but do not know that I have truly benefited the public good very much at all. My hours of service were mainly loaded onto my back by forward-thinking parents and others could have dome a better job at everything I've done. Im not sure why im so pessimistic about the public today, but I don't think it is really teenagers' job to worry about the public good. I value the experience I have had with volunteering, but do not believe that I am old or experienced enough to judge what is truly beneficial. That is why we have generals in war and bosses at work, because it is not up to the inexperienced to decide the nature of things.
The most important aspect of the public good in my eyes, is most definitely relationships with actual people. Not over the internet, not over the phone; the public good is seeing people, answering their call for acknowledgment and building connections.
I am currently serving as a big sister for the Art Buddies program through Big Brothers, Big Sisters and the Boys and Girls Club of Denver. Every week, I go to the Boys and Girls Club off of Federal and meet with my little sister, Eridani. Eridani is eight years old, is in third grade, and lives with her mom and her little sister, Evani. She provides me with a perspective and an outlook on life in Denver that is completely different from the one that I have formed since coming to school at DU. Sharing our perspectives allows us both to guide our actions in accordance with the overarching public good. We have built a relationship over the past year. I know her strengths and weaknesses and she knows mine. She has beautiful penmanship and a flair for visual art. I can't draw to save my life but love helping her come out of her shell in our performing arts unit. While I am helping her by stepping in as an older sister, she is helping me by keeping me grounded in the "real world." Every week spent with Eridani at the Boys and Girls Club allows me the opportunity to travel outside of the academic, idealistic bubble that surrounds DU and to enhance my notion of the public good and the world around us.
I really enjoyed this post, as it led me to think about some things that I probably otherwise wouldn't have. I found it interesting that you mentioned the networking aspect of contributing to the public good. I personally have found that this is an absolutely essential part of contributing to community service. Allow me to explain:
I have been involved in community service as far back as I can remember, however unlike many of you my contributions were usually made through a service organization such as the Boy Scouts, the Order of the Arrow, or my church. We would do all sorts of projects--trail building, homeless feeding, building bear habitats, you name it--and we always had the absolute best time doing it. I have made some of my best memories in the service of others. Further, we could always see the results of our efforts, so we could feel proud of what we had accomplished.
Now, some may question whether or not it is necessary for the person contributing to the public good to feel good about doing so. The answer is simple: of course it isn't. Anyone can contribute to the public good at any given time and have it not feel at all rewarding. But it helps. It makes a person want to contribute again. After all, what is could be better than doing something you feel good about, you can have fun doing, and that helps others?
I have no stories of heroism to share. I cannot claim to have changed any lives (that I know of). But I can claim that I have done a lot of things--small though they might have been--to help out, and I have had the time of my life doing so. If that isn't contributing to the public good, then I don't know what is.
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