For Release February 22, 2000

Are You A Giver Or A Taker?

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

Throughout history, in any community or society there have been those who "give" to the community and those who "take" from the community. Think beyond financial with this concept. Money may be part of it, but it is also time, effort and experience. At any one time an individual can be a taker or a giver. If a natural disaster or a personal calamity befalls the individual or family they may need to be a taker, for a short period of time, receiving shelter, food, clothing and other essentials of life. There are usually a small group within any community that, for whatever reason, simply are not able to be givers and must remain as takers.

Now that we are past these introductory thoughts let’s move into the reality of how communities function. There are certain functions in communities that are handled by governmental municipalities. There are a lot of other activities and community functions that are handled by volunteers. There are also a lot of volunteers who serve on various boards and commissions for those municipalities. There are civic groups, churches, clubs and organizations that also get involved in various community activities and needs.

I consider it a good sign when there are a lot of groups and individuals in a community seeing to the needs of the community. Why? A couple of reasons jump to mind. First of all, the more involved in the community citizens become, the more they feel that it is "their" community. This leads to a greater sense of pride and causes those citizens to want to take care of what they consider "their’s". Secondly, government municipalities can only do as much as the finances will let them do. Most any local, state or federal government can do a whole lot more for the citizens, IF the citizens are willing to pay for it, through taxes.

I have seen a disturbing trend the past couple of decades though. It seems that a lot of citizens want the government to do more, while they, the citizen, do less and they want to pay fewer taxes at the same time. I hate to be the reality check jumping up and down on your toes, but you can’t have all three! There’s an old rule of thumb called the 80/20 rule. It seems that in many communities 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Unfortunately, it may be even fewer than 20% now days doing more than 80%. If you are starting to squirm in your easy chair about now.... good!

Take a look around any community, at the people that are involved in the volunteer activities of a club, organization or community. Do you keep seeing the same faces over and over and over? More than likely you do and you will in almost any community. Who are the givers and who are the takers?

There’s another old saying that goes, "If you aren’t part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem." If all you do is complain about how the community is going to heck in a handcart and you don’t get out and get involved in trying to fix it, other than to complain about it, then you aren’t helping to solve the problems. Sure, there are a lot of things in every community that could use some work. It could be as simple as helping pick up trash up and down your street or as major as serving on one of the many boards or commissions. It may mean some physical work, it’ll definitely take a little bit of your time, and you may even have to make some unpopular decisions and do the right thing. Making a community work isn’t an easy task. Keeping it going is an even tougher task. But if YOU aren’t willing to do something about it, if all YOU want to do is take and take and take from the community, then I sure hope I don’t hear you complaining about it! If, on the other hand, you are willing to do something to make it better, give me a call and I’ll get you in touch with the people that could use the help! It can be "their" community or "your" community. The choice is YOURS!

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