I feel a profound sense of “othering” and fear.

I just moved back to my hometown in Ohio and am both amazed and disgusted that the town has become a zoo of sorts. People come from all around to experience our community as if this were a section of a Disney park beside Diagon Alley.

Except some want to bring their culture with them to show us how wrong we are for having walkable neighborhoods, interesting shops run by sole proprietors, courtyards, benches, natural areas with trails, and an interactive, intergenerational, interracial education-oriented community.

It’s not just the isolation of the pandemic that’s killing us. But the time, tools, role models, and mental capacity to disarm fear and work together for a common good.

Somebody wants somebody to listen. Relate.

It’s not the pills, prisons, or another pointed gun that’s going to change us, but community and relationships as found in Intentional Peer Support.

https://www.intentionalpeersupport.org/what-is-ips/?v=7516fd43adaa