Just my luck, in the short 11-month period I've committed to national and community service, I got called into jury duty and no, I'm not kidding. Due to the surplus of citizens reporting for duty, I was dismissed early and though I wasn't expecting to take anything away from that short period of time, I learned about a basic fundamental in our society that we seem to emphasize only at certain times: community service.
You've heard it time and time again from the media, from organizations, and from this blog asking for you to commit your time, knowledge, and skills for the greater good. While I was waiting for the fate of my civic duty, I looked around and saw how distraught people were (myself, included) because they were not at work or school, being productive to society. I thought not only how citizens can give back to the community, but also what motivates someone to take action.
The time to give is now. There is no need to wait for a special community day of service to take action. There are always areas of our society that need assistance and in my humble opinion, every day can be a day of community service. To expand on that idea, it feels great to help the community and when I do, I feel that a bit of justice is served. If you're familiar with the musical "Avenue Q," this may sound familiar: "When you help others, you can't help helping yourself!"
Every single person reading this blog post can make an impact in their community, state, and nation. As it has been said before, "the need is constant." Please consider your family, friends, colleagues, peers, and neighbors and when you're ready, the community will be waiting for you.
Amitai "Tai" S. Zuckerman
Preparedness Coordinator
American Red Cross – Tulare and Kings Counties
AmeriCorps NPRC Member 2013-2014
Community Preparedness and Resilience Services
amitai.zuckerman@redcross.org
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