Out Loud and Often
I was interviewed by a woman from New York City on Saturday.
"What is it that you do?" she asked.
I get this question a lot, and part of the response I give mentions sharing stories of a community's "unsung heroes".
But this time, the phrase, "unsung heroes", struck me as just a little bit silly.
Here in my office was a woman from the biggest city in the United States: NYC clocks in at 8.3 million people—about a million short of the entire population of Michigan.
To give that some sense of human scale, let's say you wanted to exercise your Midwestern charm by meeting them all and committed to say “Hi!” to 50 people every day.
Not including any time for "ope", taking too long to say good-bye, explaining what a party store is, or showing them where you live on the palm of your hand, it would take 166,000 days to get to everyone.
Never miss a day and it would take 465 years.
This is more than six and a half lifetimes worth of "hellos", and in the best-case scenario, you'd get less than 5% of the way to your goal of 8.3 million before everyone on the list passes away, requiring you to start over with a completely new list.
In every sense of the word, it's impossible.
But what about Bay City, a city of 33,000?
660 days, 1.8 years.
Saginaw?
Only slightly more: 960 days, two and half years.
Of course, both would still quite an undertaking...but within the realm of possible.
Here's my point: in a city of eight million, you simply can't know all (or in a relative sense, even some) of your local heroes.
But here, in our places of 1/200 the population?
Not only does the math say that it's possible, the math says that in every community under 50,000 people, it should be PROBABLE. Combine this probability with the instant and extensive interconnectedness given to us by the internet, and there's a potential for most of the population to at least be aware of most of the people most critical to its success.
But, of course, we don't know all of the people doing great things for our greater good. Rather than spend time talking about why that is, however, let's talk about how we can begin to turn our unsung heroes into people who are seen and acknowledged:
1) The local news should see stories about people doing great things within a community as having equal value to what's traditionally thought of as news. Say what you want, but Bob Johnson, Heather Jordan, and Justin Engel at The Bay City Times and The Saginaw News do a fantastic job at this, both in quality and consistency.
If you disagree, you're not following close enough, and the assumption that the local news should function primarily as a marketing agency for a community is both wrong and antithetical to the function of journalism. But alongside asking hard questions, covering difficult issues, and advocating for further transparency and engagement, sharing the stories of people building up a community is good journalism, too.
2) When these stories are covered by the news, WE the audience need to embrace them with the same kind of enthusiasm we have leaving comments or smashing the "like" or "share" button for contentious or negative news. The news is essentially a business and directed by engagement, clicks, and shares. We need to read more than the headlines. We need to KNOW these stories and share them.
3) Cities themselves, whether through the local government, community foundations, or economic development organizations, should take ownership of the responsibility of telling and spreading stories of community champions. These stories acknowledge the contributions of citizens, strengthen community fabric, inspire, and from an economic perspective, attract and retain people and investment. These stories are OUR stories, so we should be the primary tellers.
4) But before all of this, we should start by cheering each other on, out loud and often. We should realize the power of the shout-out and the kind word. Whether it's for someone who mows an elderly neighbor's lawn on Saturdays or a elected official with 60 years of public service, we need to, every day, see and acknowledge, both publicly and privately, the value of their actions.
In this, I have been blessed. Yesterday after our interview, Trel Frazier said some of the nicest things a person has said to me...and we've only met twice. RushDee Williams, Courtney Garrett, and Bob Johnson encouraged me at a time when I needed it the most. Jamie Forbes, Kevin N. Gregory, Alexander Mixter, Paul A. Barrera, Craig Goslin, Mike Hanley, Renee Johnston, Carol Bartlett Cottrell, Nyesha LaToy, DeVaughn Collins, Ryan Tarrant, Magen Samyn, Jenny Cerny Boulware, Ben Muldrow, and so many others have done things, sent texts, or said things to me that have not only made me feel good, but made a difference in my life and my work.
Words matter and they have power. They encourage when feeling discouraged. They energize when facing fatigue. They inspire to something greater. They, in some cases, are solely responsible for the work continuing at all. I think about something I read a few months ago that said "All transformation is linguistic", meaning that every kind of transformation begins with words. I may not be a teacher, but I can play a part in the transformation a teacher's work by saying, "You are so valuable to my child and our family." I may not be an elected official, but I can play a part in transforming the work of that elected official by saying, "I know being a leader is difficult and I couldn't do what you do, but you are so important to me and the rest of the community, even if everyone doesn't see that. Keep leading."
Within our small communities, this kind of private and public vocal support should be pervasive and infectious— there is no reason that the people doing the best kinds of work among us should wake up a single without feeling our acknowledgement and support.
Whether it's on social media, over a cup of coffee, or from the rooftops with a megaphone, we should cheer each other on, out loud and often.
No more unsung heros.
Let's sing.
P.S. I would love it if you used the comment section to tag and give a shout out to some folks in your community doing something great!