It is another day, another week and once again we are disheartened.

It is a world of more death, either from the virus or through hatred and violence.

It is a world where the pandemic numbers grow. People are losing jobs, businesses are closing.

We wake up and begin each day tense, at edge, on the defensive.

We fire up our computers to get our morning dose of social media or turn on the TV to consume our preferred flavor of political talking points.

We venture into the world and approach each other defensively and with caution at best, anger at worst, quick to judge and easy to frighten. We are polarized and, sometimes, over the most unimportant and banal of issues.

This is not the way I want the world to be.

As we closed out 2019, few if any of us would have identified face shields and social distancing as something that would consume our time and divide us. Even though we knew it was possible, we were not planning for more death and more violence in our cities. There were not many who saw protests as being the activity that took up our time and energy.

When I became a member of the City Council of Butler at the beginning of the year, it was my hope that, with all of you working with me, we could identify the needs of our community and draw on the strengths of the citizenry to address those issues, to solve those problems. The problems in my vision at that time were NOT the problems that we are facing now.

I still believe this.

Despite the major issues that shake our nation to its core and the aggravations that create tension, we still have the capacity to work together, to get the job done.

This is not a feeble, naive belief. This is a practical, feasible, and realistic notion that the BEST place to get things done is in this small town. To move this community forward, beyond the paralyzing hatred that we see elsewhere and beyond this pandemic will take focus, compromise, and hard work.

We can do it. Right here. Right now.

Think about it. Would you sooner attempt to build a community-minded police force that positively responds and interacts with our citizens in a major metropolitan area or in a small town? Would you feel that you had a better chance of assuring equitable, affordable housing in an urban center or in a family community. Above and beyond the billions of dollars spent on national relief efforts, can we observe suggested, safe health practices and yet still support our local small businesses and grow local economy when we know that business owner?

Can we more efficiently feed people — children — with efficiency and success when there is a face on that person? Can we entice small businesses to invest in our community and create jobs or is the only way to do that by hoping against hope for a major corporation to come along?

Is it easier to reach out to neighbors who work with us, go to school with us, shop with us or socialize with us? Can we more easily muster up tolerance, compassion, and generosity that transcends race, gender, sexuality, income, and other markers when the person passes us on the sidewalk and offers a “hello”? Can we more easily put aside our hate and fears when we know the families of the people with whom we interact?

Certainly, we will enjoy more immediate success when we can begin in our own community with the intimate and personal. And those who know me best have heard me say, “Success breeds success.”

This is not a simplistic, idealistic, Pollyannaish approach. This is real and it is hard. The financial ramifications of this pandemic will reach our city coffers. However, we can set goals that are reachable, achievable, measurable. Ambitions that seem insane, grandiose, and overwhelming become manageable and reachable when viewed in a smaller, more personal scale.

President Obama recently observed that “The elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.” This is true. Mayors, county executives, and borough councils maintain and provide police departments. However, its MORE than public safety and it is even more intimate than local government. We begin on the most personal of levels, with an examination of conscience, asking ourselves if we have done all that we could to support our community and to help it prosper and grow. Housing, health care, public safety, recreation, jobs … these are the responsibility of every person and by working to provide them, we show the most basic respect for another and the cracks in the walls that divide us begin to form and grow.

It is our precious right to protest and speak our minds and we must do so, whether it be in the town square or around our tables in our homes. But the endgame is not the rhetoric and slogans. We must begin the heavy lifting.

Our greatest resource is our human spirit and with that we can, as one small community, move toward conquering the forces that are set up against the most civil of societies. The best Butler is one where every one of us, from elected official to volunteer, from shopowner to home owner, from parent to teacher, from senior citizen to small child, feels welcome, believes in their potential, and works together in civility and respect, with a deep desire to see the best in our fellow human beings.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (attributed to Margaret Mead)

We can do it. Right here. Right now.

Bob Dandoy is a Butler City councilman.