Come Together

The events of this past week have made me realize that that when a community comes together to rally towards one cause, the outcome can be incredible.  Of course this week’s particular cause that initiated this thought happened to be the the miraculous (and long time coming) World Series win by our very own San Francisco Giants.

Nobody in San Francisco, or the greater Bay Area for that matter, could ignore the overwhelming feelings of happiness and pride that each defeat brought.  Ashkon’s version of “Don’t Stop Believing” had even the tone-def singing, and elicited the interest of Steve Perry himself.  Neighborhoods were filled with orange and black flags, pom-poms, stickers, and every other person was wearing some form of Giants paraphernalia.  People watched in awe as almost 1 million San Franciscans flooded city hall post-parade to congratulate the self-proclaimed “team of misfits”.  In the almost 10 years that I have been living here, I have never once experienced such a community-bonding and joyous time… it was, and still is, simply incredible how much this victory lifted the spirits of so many of us.  It still brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

While sporting events such as this are generally happier “come together” causes, unfortunately disasters tend to be the more frequent cause that brings a community together.  I think back to when the San Bruno explosion happened, citizens were so eager to help in any way they could that the American Red Cross had to close it’s doors because it was simply too overwhelmed.  Local volunteers were collecting donations of food, clothing, and housing supplies to help those families whose homes were destroyed.  Once again, we saw local neighborhoods and communities come together for a common good: to help their neighbors in need.  Though the fire was absolutely devastating, it was still incredibly inspiring to see exactly how selfless individuals can be.

Reflecting on these events, I wonder: why can we not come together more often?  Should it really take an local sports team to win big, or a devastating disaster to make us bond together as one and work towards a greater good?  There is too much work that needs to be done to better our own neighborhoods to simply wait for such events to force us to work with one another to achieve a common goal.  There is no better time than now to go out and gather your friends, neighbors, and family, and work together towards solving the problems that your own community has.