What If?

Today marks the inauguration of our 45^th president, Donald Trump, whose mantra is “make America great again.”

I listened to his inauguration speech and it provoked me to think, “What can I do to contribute to this effort to make our country great again?”

Instead of expecting to receive something from this new government just because I am a citizen—making me merely “a taker”, what can I do to support an effort to reverse our country’s negative spiral?

Can an older, retired, American with limited funds take any meaningful action to bring about even the smallest progress toward this lofty goal?  I like to believe I am a patriot with something yet to give.  

So, what to do?

I believe it falls into several categories:  home, neighborhood, community, and country.

In my home, I can:  Maintain it, improve it, and make it something I can be happy to live in, while creating a dwelling and yard that my neighbors can be proud to live next to.

In my neighborhood, I can:  Pick up a piece of litter, offer assistance to a neighbor in need, or participate in a neighborhood watch.  I can put forth the effort to meet and know the people on my block, and with that knowledge, I can possibly gain a mutually caring and supportive neighbor.

In my community, I can:  Offer to volunteer in any number of positive arenas that make my town better, from raising funds for the homeless, the police and fire fighters to giving time to the town for neighborhood and park cleanups.  I can plant flowers in public areas, volunteer to paint over graffiti, or pick up litter on the sidewalk.  I can support local businesses.  I can buy local, and to the extent possible only American-made products.  I can learn about what my community struggles with financially in order to understand, empathize with and support my local government as they attempt to deal with these issues.

In my country, I can:  Be positive and patriotic, limit my complaining, and replace verbalizing only negativity with productive action.  Instead of tearing down my President, elected officials and other citizens, I can either remain quiet or contribute a suggestion for meaningful change.

This may all seem lofty, naïve or impossible (especially over the long haul) but it seems like a worthy goal.  Most of all, I want to give the new president a chance to accomplish his dreams, or even a portion of them.  And that will make America, and all of us, great again!

What if everyone made a list of what they could do personally, and then pursued even one item on their list?  Imagine where we could all be in just a short time.