Community

(Local View from 4'2, Lake County Press, July 11, 2025)

Community:

Noun

1. a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.

2.  a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals

3. a group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

I am so grateful for the many communities in which I live, work, and thrive in. I have my personal bubble of community which is my biological family, my chosen family of friends, and my family of faith. I also have my family of disability, justice, activism, and crips or gimps. (Reminder- crips and gimps are words folks that are in disability culture can use in context or in-culture but folks not in disability culture should not use these words.) We are people that just get it- we know crip time, use of spoons, and a host of medical jargon even more than some medical providers.

I am so grateful that my communities are diverse. I have friends and allies in the disability justice community. I have a host of friends and colleagues in the non-profit sector. I have gardening friends. I have acquaintances and shared life experiences with folks in the podcasting world. I have a community of supporters and providers and even friends in the medical world. I have neighbors in communal public housing living. I have a community with other civically minded, volunteer oriented, commission and board serving servants. I have a diverse community of believers and non-believers. I have friends and supporters in my writing spaces. (Thanks for your encouraging words after my vulnerable column last week.)

As we celebrate Disability Pride Month, I encourage us to each look at the different aspects of community that we each are a part of. Each community is valuable to who we are and there are some communities that maybe no longer serve us or it is time for us to no longer serve. And maybe there are parts of our community, our city, our county, our region that you are being called to step up and be a more integral part of the community. There really are limitless possibilities and opportunities for us all to serve each other, to be an interdependent part of our community.

As we celebrated the Fourth of July, I reminisced about being little and riding on the back of the firetruck to the breakwall for the fireworks. Now I admire them from a safer distance for me in my very flammable manual chair. As we look forward to Heritage Days and Bay Days, our one parade for our small towns, I encourage us to invite our neighbors and maybe someone who needs an invite to events. We all need each other, we all need community. Sometimes folks just need an invite or two or three or more, especially if they are stoic Scandanavians.

I look forward to watching the parade and seeing the joy it brings to young and old alike. I absolutely love it when people in the parade make sure to include all participants by leaving the roadway and bringing treats or information to folks sitting in the shade or near their homes. It is the small acts of kindness that make us seen and remembered.

There is so much hurt and uncertainty in our world right now. But I have hope because I have seen our communities, our towns, our county, our region, and our state rally around needs, people, and passion projects to make sure our fellow citizens have their basic needs met. Our communities matter and they need us now more than ever. Every community has disability representation in it. The question is if the community is a safe place for everyone to embrace their differences, or needs, and ability to ask for help or to give help.

So as we gather in community to celebrate our class reunions, family reunions, or just have a hometown gathering, may we be intentional to make sure our whole community is here, that all are invited, and that the places and spaces are safe and accessible. Happy Heritage Days, Bay Days, and Disability Pride Month!