What this Community needs...

The Pagan Community has many issues that need to be addressed. But the reality of the situation is that each community has their own needs, their own resources and their own set of values.

Over the years I've made statements that "what this community needs is…" and you can fill in the blanks. We need a lot. We need to consider, however, what we really need the most. And work our way from there.

The pagan community is not rich. Nor are any communities, generally speaking. Nor is there going to be much to spread around for nonessentials for a while.

We are facing something many folks have not experienced before. It was the late '80s the last time we faced a fiscal recession. We are experiencing a loss of jobs in huge proportions. We are seeing the Domino process in place, with job loss leading to home loss. These hard financial times take a toll on the families it touches, usually the working middle class and the poor. And many pagans fall into these categories. Hard working for minimum wage jobs, they are usually the first to feel the pinch. I see it here in middle America. I'm sure you have seen it as well. Or you will very soon.

The problem is that it's not just the pagan community. It is all the communities that appeal to the hard working middle class Americans who are on the edge of the job cuts and layoffs.

We can't say we didn't see this coming. Rather, many of us saw it, and some started working to cut the impact down early. Others are in a position where no matter what happens, it will be more of a burden on them. And then we have the "Who care's, it doesn't affect me" group. Wait for it…

We are looking at possible change . Change in political parties, change in the way we will have to view how we live and where we live and how we take care of our families.

Look at the off handed way big business thinks they can treat us. Prices for gas products that are over the top and reaching levels where many can not afford it. Yet, it remains critical to our every day access to jobs, food and housing. What happened to alternatives?

Every time big business needs to find money, the fastest way to acquire it is to lay off employees. Fast funding, quick lowering of business expense, and all it does is make the stock holders and upper management happy while the employees who remain are pushed further into stress and the customer becomes neglected, harassed or does not receive the value for the dollar spent on the products and services big business sells. And who has let business run amok for a good long time now?

Government and business. It is as bad as Government and religion.

What this community needs is some common sense and strategies to assist each other to survive this recession. What we need to do is speak up at the polls. We need to be more active in our school boards and in our community services.

What we need are folks who know what resources are available to us in our times of need ahead. What we need is information. And people who have collected this information for the rest of our communities to use.

Time to focus. Time to look at how we are going to ride out change.

Boudica

(Photograph of a Breadline in New York City During the Great Depression circa 1932)