Society as we know it is under attack. There’s so much negativity going on in our country, whether that be addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, homelessness, pollution, etc. How do you combat such widespread problems? When do we become a society that’s not so quick to incarcerate, and we focus on education. Other countries do it with overwhelming success, are we as a society too good to emulate others success? Our local jails, state/federal prisons are overwhelmed and yet these problems seem to continue to occur. Adding new laws to put “Band-Aids” on the problems are statistically not working…… my question is when are these elected officials going to realize that, when is basic society going to start holding these elected officials accountable for not doing better.
I have this dilemma that goes on in my head often. How can I as a business owner do more because let’s face it, not enoughs being done to help combat some of the problems I listed above. What kind of impact can I have in helping homelessness, domestic violence, pollution etc….The answers are quite simple, its time & knowledge.
What better way to help then to be able to offer some of my time and resources to potentially fill a void that’s desperately missing in our communities across this country. The gardening community knows the importance gardening plays in their social and psychological lives. Now, if I could bring that to people that are battling with their own inner struggles then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
People want recognition. Whether that’s the homeless man on a street corner, or the local business owner. Nobody wants to feel washed up and alone, many have hard stories to tell of how they ended up holding a sign to begin with. Yet we turn a blind eye cursing to ourselves on how terrible they make our communities look.
We’ve become a society that complains a lot, but does very little. It’s time to think preventative, it’s time to use “growth” as a tool. Now I know the Community Garden movement isn’t new to most area’s, and I know it’s had some fantastic results. The problem is there’s not enough of them. With all the categories I’ve mentioned, gardening can benefit each one of them. The tricky thing is, how do you implement them into a domestic violence situation, a littering crisis, a homeless epidemic..? You need to have multiple channels all on the same page. From mayor’s, to judges, to police officers, to business owners, if all would network together……. the results would be amazing,
I look forward to keeping you updated on how I personally help utilize the GrowzSocial movement. Feel free to comment on things I can do to better my community, or just feel free to share your experiences.