Mamacita says: “Community” is something that many people take for granted, and even discount or abuse, but when all is said and done, this “community” thing is the backbone of society. Those of us who work in social media know this, but I wonder sometimes if everybody realizes how very, very important our treatment of each other can really be! This applies to business, friendship, family, friends, and that myriad of total strangers we brush against every single day as we all go about doing our own thang.
A business that isn’t careful to treat its customers well will soon find that it HAS no customers. Children who pinch and bite will soon find that other children don’t like them and won’t play with them. Youthful “quitters” often become adults who walk away when things don’t suit them. Teens who treat other teens with stereotypical snobbish and better-than-thou attitudes might rule the cafeteria and hallways, but once they graduate they – unless they’re REALLY stupid -will discover that such tactics turn them into undesirables in the real world. Of course, some people never stray outside of the high school mentality that includes and then drops on whatever the whim of the moment might be, but are these really quality people? Um, no.
Are you listening, Twitter? Ahem.
1. I am a part of all that I have met. — Alfred, Lord Tennyson
2. Hear me, four quarters of the world – a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds. — Black Elk
3. The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society — more briefly, to find your real job, and do it. — Charlotte Perkins Gilman
4. One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade. — Chinese proverb
5. We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race. — Cicero
6. This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century — solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others. — Elie Wiesel
7. There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other. — Eric Hoffer
8. The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt. — Frederick Buechner
9. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. — George Bernard Shaw
10. What cannot be achieved in one lifetime will happen when one lifetime is joined to another. — Harold Kushner
11. The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life. — Jane Addams
12. There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication…. Try the experiment of communicating, with fullness and accuracy, some experience to another, especially if it be somewhat complicated, and you will find your own attitude toward your experience changing. — John Dewey
13. The American city should be a collection of communities where every member has a right to belong. It should be a place where every man feels safe on his streets and in the house of his friends. It should be a place where each individual’s dignity and self-respect is strengthened by the respect and affection of his neighbors. It should be a place where each of us can find the satisfaction and warmth which comes from being a member of the community of man. This is what man sought at the dawn of civilization. It is what we seek today. — Lyndon B. Johnson
14. There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community. — M. Scott Peck
15. Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead
16. My faith has been the driving thing of my life. I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values. — Marian Wright Edelman
17. If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth. — Mitsugi Saotome
18. Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbor’s creed has lent.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
19. How does one keep from “growing old inside”? Surely only in community. The only way to make friends with time is to stay friends with people…. Taking community seriously not only gives us the companionship we need, it also relieves us of the notion that we are indispensable. — Robert McAfee Brown
20. Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. — Rollo May
21. We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone … and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something. — Sandra Day O’Connor
22. The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say, “What are you going through?” — Simone Weil
23. We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been — a place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch glimpses of from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free. — Starhawk
24. Genuine politics — even politics worthy of the name — the only politics I am willing to devote myself to — is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and for the whole. — Vaclav Havel
25. One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them. — Virginia Woolf
26. What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
27. As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality. — George Washington
28. Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers. — Howard Thurman
29. When all is said and done, the real citadel of strength of any community is in the hearts and minds and desires of those who dwell there. — Everett Dirksen
30. The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community. — William James
31. Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community. — John W. Gardner
32. We have all known the long loneliness, and we have found that the answer is community. — Dorothy Day
33. I am a huge believer in giving back and helping out in the community and the world. Think globally, act locally I suppose. I believe that the measure of a person’s life is the affect they have on others. — Steve Nash
34. What people say behind your back is your standing in the community. — Edward W. Howe
35. Communities don’t have rights. Only individuals in the community have rights. — Michael Badnarik
36. I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community. I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in. — Anita Roddick
37. It is in the power of every individual to do that which the community as a whole is powerless to effect. — William Thomas Stead
38. The left has come to regard common sense – the traditional wisdom and folkways of the community – as an obstacle to progress and enlightenment. — Christopher Lasch
39. When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society, we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong. We don’t honor them enough, we don’t pay them enough. — Charles Kuralt
40. If you feel rooted in your home and family, if you’re active in your community, there’s nothing more empowering. The best way to make a difference in the world is to start by making a difference in your own life. — Julia Louis-Dreyfus
41. As a former high school teacher, I know that investing in education is one of the most important things we can do, not only for our children, but for the benefit of our whole community. — Ed Pastor
42. You shouldn’t get to live in society and give nothing back. People complain about their taxes, yet they do nothing for the community. That makes me furious. — Kathleen Turner
43. Community service has taught me all kinds of skills and increased my confidence. You go out there and think on your feet, work with others and create something from nothing. That’s what life’s all about. — Andrew Shue
44. New marketing is about the relationships, not the medium. –- Ben Grossman
45. We are advertis’d by our loving friends. — William Shakespeare
46. Human beings are fundamentally communal; our individuality is a product of community, and our choices are shaped by our being with others. — Judith Plaskow
47. First it is necessary to stand on your own two feet. But the minute a man finds himself in that position, the next thing he should do is reach out his arms. — Kristin Hunter
48. Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community. — John W. Gardner
49. It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. — John Adams
50. Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them. — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Mamacita says: What, no Quotation Saturday? Apparently not. I’m busy thinking up reasons to put off grading essays and quizzes, trying to keep the cats off the countertops, and harvesting pink roses. I’m also in a bit of a snit – so what’s new? – because some of my students’ topics and content are making me think, and dagnabit, it’s the WEEKEND.
Mamacita says: Several years ago, back in the middle school, we had a student whose mother was referred to as “the mother from Hell,” and everyone in the building knew exactly who we were talking about whenever someone said it. She snooped through everything. She criticized the subject matter and placement of the posters on the walls. She liked to “inspect” the cafeteria. She constantly asked how other students (by name) were doing in a class, and became angry when none of us would divulge other people’s children’s grades to her. She rearranged furniture and wall art. She interfered, and infringed upon boundaries, and loved to call 
Mamacita says: Whether or not you celebrate Christmas has nothing whatsoever to do with being Santa Claus for someone. Call it whatever you wish: just call it something, and go forth and do it. Letting your soul curl up into a ball of resentment because YOUR religion, or lack of such, doesn’t “do” Christmas is a waste of time, a waste of emotion, a waste of heart, a waste of zeal, and a waste of YOU.