HOW WE SEE IT

Compassion Plays A Role In Communities

WHAT’S THE POINT?

Communities, from Fayetteville and beyond, are made stronger by individual acts of compassion.

In 2009, when newly elected Mayor Lioneld Jordan wanted to chart a course for his administration, he devoted about $39,000 in taxpayer dollars toward a community collaboration effort he deemed Fayetteville Forward. He described it as a stage-setter for his economic development efforts.

In the years since, the effort continued in various groups designed to envision a future for Fayetteville. For some, the approach amounts to a lot of talking, and that evaluation isn’t necessarily a good one. For others, however, it delivered a new venue from which to pursue ideas and get plugged into the communities that make up Fayetteville.

The most recent accomplishment of Fayetteville Forward is the city of Fayetteville’s designation as a “compassionate city” by the Compassionate Action Network International. Fayetteville is the only city in Arkansas so recognized by the network.

Truth be told, that’s most likely because Fayetteville is the only community in Arkansas devoting resources to seeking out such a designation. But the Inclusion Group of Fayetteville Forward has passionately pursued recognition of Fayetteville’s nicer side, the characteristic one might say is guided by “The Golden Rule.”

You know The Golden Rule: Treat others as you would have them treat you.

Maybe it’s more familiar in the Apostle Paul’s call to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Or it could have been the Prophet Muhammad, saying “You will not enter paradise until you have faith. And you will not complete your faith until you love one another.”

Or maybe the Dalai Lama: “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”

Advocates for the local three-year initiative in Fayetteville tout the involvement of aldermen Rhonda Adams, Alan Long, Adella Gray and Sarah Marsh, as well as the mayor and City Attorney Kit Williams.

“It is very important to know that people (in government) are compassionate and kind to each other, and ordinances and laws are created by compassionate, kind people who like living together in a great city,” Adams said of the effort last year.

Who can dispute the positive potential of compassion? We won’t. At the individual level, the goal of developing a more compassionate response to our fellow humans, our natural world and our organizational relationships is a worthy effort.

So, is Fayetteville really a more compassionate city than any other in Arkansas? No. Even those involved in achieving the recognition would probably note that a certificate or a trophy is not, in and of themselves, an expression of compassion. An award doesn’t magically make all the residents of Fayetteville more kind, more friendly, more caring or more empathetic. Whatever compassion one might find in a community’s leadership isn’t a result of a mayoral proclamation. It arises from choices made by individuals, and those choices matter a great deal more in the interaction of people than they do in checking off boxes or submitting statistics on an application for an award.

We appreciate people in all communities who are working hard to make them better and to create opportunities in which people of all kinds can find common ground, not by eliminating differences but by recognizing human connections that can thrive even in the midst of those differences.

Acts of compassion are difference-makers in the lives of communities. The positive impact is in the act itself, not recognition of the act.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 02/11/2014

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