21 Sep Waiting On the World to Change

I just put on my headphones to listen to some music at work, and the song “Waiting On the World to Change” came on.

It makes me reflect on all the various situations in P², and how many people have dedicated so much time to making it a better place to live, work, and play. It’s easy to walk around the neighborhood and get discouraged by all of the problems that are so easily visible: the drug dealing in Occidental Square, the unruly crowds in front of the Saveway (and drug dealing there? Topic for another post…), the homeless that line the street in front of Masins furniture, and leave a mess there every morning, etc. I know a lot of you have a lot to add to that sentence.

Husband and I are getting ready to do our first interview this week, and to be honest, I’m nervous about it. I never had any real interaction with a homeless person before moving down here to P². I think I’ve already grown since moving down here, and find many of them are quite funny. I’m nervous, though, because it’s a world that I don’t come even close to understanding. I’m worried that I’ll come off as naïve, or even judgmental. But our motives are innocent enough – we just want to learn more, and get to know the people who share our neighborhood.

The lyrics from the above song say “We just feel like we don’t have the means To rise above and beat it,” but from what I’ve seen so far in this neighborhood and on the various PSCA committees, I know that’s not true. There are so many people working so many hours behind the scenes to make this a successful neighborhood. But to the rest of you, you can’t just wait for the world to change. You need to get involved, even if it’s on a small scale.

It takes more than a few dedicated people and committees to make a substantial difference. It takes the efforts of the business leaders in the neighborhoods, the efforts of the residents, even the homeless residents, and the efforts of everyone else who has a stake in whether or not this neighborhood will get better, before real change can happen.

p.s. a good way to start is by coming to the “Comedy in the Park” event this Wednesday – I’ve heard they’ve been really funny so far.