Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Coffee Hour at Street Prophets. This is an open thread where we can discuss what’s happening in our lives, what we’ve been working on, and our opinions on current events. For today’s starting point, I’d thought I’d raise the issue of community spirit.
Our topic today is inspired by a small structure I recently encountered in a city park:
People came together to make the tiles for this structure. Here we see community spirit as an activity that brings people together to work for a common cause. People from all walks of life came together to create the thousands of tiles needed. Here community spirit seems to be based on inclusion.
On the other hand, there seem to be an increasing number of people who feel that community spirit is best served through exclusion: through keeping people out. This type of community spirit seems to be an expression of xenophobia, racism, homophobia, bullying, and a general fear of anything that might be different.
So, how you do you feel about community spirit? What can be done to develop community spirit in your physical community and in your on-line communities?
This is an open thread. Feel free to talk about what your are working on, what you have been thinking about, what’s new in your life, and, most important, what’s for dinner?