The young sometimes have better answers to things than adults do. Take for example, the responses to the question of the week on page 9. “What are the benefits of getting involved in organized sports?” Each of the young responders recognizes that sports brings people together, gives them a sense of belonging and it’s fun while keeping one in shape.
Sports doesn’t have to mean you have to play on a soccer team or scale mountains. It can mean getting together around a pool table, belonging to a group or even betting on Nascar. It’s about the team spirit, the alliances and friendships that survive long after the game is over. In today’s society, we don’t bond through initiation rituals or rites of passage, but through teams and associations. People have a primal need to belong to a group larger than themselves. There is safety in numbers, but there is also community. Community means a unified body of individuals with common interests. That’s a team.
So, if we could take the words of the young and apply them to a group such as municipal council, how would that shake out? Does being on council give one a sense of belonging? Does one make friends around the council table? Are they unified? Does it make council leave the drama behind? And, most importantly, is it fun?
Those are the questions that should be asked for all those who may want to run for council in the upcoming election, because these kids have a far better sense of what teamwork is about than some adults. A council should be a team. A team can accomplish much more than an individual and that is what we should all should strive for.
The old saying, “there is no “i” in team,” is appropriate and this of all things is what should be a priority for the next council.