I recently wrote about abstinence education, and I explained
how Union County’s Comprehensive Health Committee helped keep contraception out
of our schools.
If you read that you might have pictured some school
administrators, professionals, or beaurocrats sitting in a room making these
decisions. Perhaps you even thought, “I wish I could make a difference like
that.”
The reality is that you can make a difference. When I first
heard that the committee was being formed I decided to show up at the first
meeting. Initially against my will I was elected as chairmen of that board, and
it has been a pleasure to hold that position for all three years of the board’s
existence.
There are professionals on the board: there are members from
the county office, teachers, coaches, counselors, and nurses on the board. But
there are also members of the faith-based community: pastors, church leaders,
and volunteers from the crisis pregnancy center have spent time on the board.
There have even been student representatives there.
In a group so diverse we will never all see eye to eye on
every issue, but we all come together for one reason, and that is to make a
difference. How to do that is different to many of us, and we have disagreed
many times. But at the end of every meeting there is laughing and hugging
before we part ways.
It is easy to read the paper or watch the news and become
angry, but instead of complaining about it over coffee, why not do something
about it? Get involved, call congress, run for office, join a board, draft a
petition, write an op-ed, start a charity. We have enough complainers; we need
more doers.
You might not think that you could ever make a difference,
but as long as you’re sitting on your couch thinking that then you aren’t making a difference anyway.
Comments