All for one & one for all. Watch each others backs
We’ve all watched cop shows. The radio announces a 10–13 in progress. An officer needs assistance! Sirens blare. Lunch break interrupted. Cops rush to assist fellow officers. Their personalities, attitudes, cultures and backgrounds may differ but responding to the call, they are of one mind, body, spirit.
So what would happen if we had a 10–13 Society? Why isn’t there a 10–13 call when…. Someone’s starving. Someone’s freezing. Someone’s homeless. Someone’s about to do something terrible.
We used to have that society.
The church bells in the Middle Ages rang announcing trouble on the horizon. The villagers braced for an advancing army, or maybe they took flight
The Minutemen of colonial days heard “the British are coming!” and they grabbed their muskets.
The volunteer firemen heard the alarm and rushed to the fire.
The snow kept falling or the river kept rising and everybody started shoveling or sandbagging to meet the crisis
The church burned to the ground and everyone pitched in to re-build it.
So, what happened? Why the change?
Society got professional, distracted, uncaring. Let the cops do it. Let the teachers do it. Call the social worker. Don’t get involved. Stay out of the way. Avoid the risk. That’s somebody elses problem. I got my own problems. We are no longer our brothers’ keeper. I picked myself up by my bootstraps and so should you.
Imagine a 10–13 Society where an attack on one is an attack on all. Nip it in the bud: bullying, domestic violence, sexual violence, bigotry and all manner of injustices.
Imagine a 10–13 Society where we have differences but when a fundamental norm is broken, a switch flips and a hive mind takes over. The hungry are fed, the homeless are housed, the sick are treated and as they say in the military “nobody is left behind”.
Imagine a 10–13 Society where the phrase “Everyone Knows Your Name” as sung in the “Cheers” tv show was really true.
Imagine a 10–13 Society where nobody looked away, nobody shrugged their shoulders and everybody in unison said “Hell No” and “You Can’t Arrest Us All”. This is a society where a “line-in-the-sand” was drawn over which no person in good conscience can cross.
Imagine a 10–13 Society where everyone knew there was a safety net of people who were available to help concerning sickness, rides, baby sitters or just having someone to talk to. What if everyone could ease their troubled minds knowing there would always be “3 hots and a cot” and medical assistance if their finances and health failed. Deep down isn’t that what we all fundamentally crave? What more do we really need?
What would happen if “United Ways” really became “United Ways”?
What would happen if churches and congregations didn’t just meet at designated times but flung open their doors and travelled about the community righting wrongs, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, sheltering the homeless as espoused in their mission statements.
What would happen if all chambers of commerce, non-profits and corporations that spout lofty intentions and civic mindedness exited their board rooms and offices by getting down & dirty, working in the trenches facing head-on person-to-person with the societal issue that they portend to address. In sum, fewer “white papers”, reports, studies, grant applications and more good old-fashioned roll-up-your sleeves doing.
Last, but not least, what if all political parties and politicians did less politicking and more doing. Less pontificating, blaming, posturing, strategizing and more doing. Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk.
Imagine all the re-channeling of time, energy and resources that could be accomplished in a 10–13 Society. If done promptly and vigorously, it could be less costly than the start-stop, compartmentalized, fragmented, frenetic, knee jerk responses to societal ills.
The hour is late. It’s now 10–13 PM and the midnight deadline is fast approaching. Transition now to a 10–13 Society so we still have a society when the clock strikes midnight.
Dunn Writes Well 