We had a moment yesterday. A fancy term for it would be “ennui.” Or maybe just shaking our head sums it up better. Like driving along a beach but unable to step foot on the sand.
A story in The Commercial told of the plight of three civic clubs in Pine Bluff, especially in terms of the pressure that the covid-19 pandemic has put on them.
The main thrust of the piece was that the coronavirus had really put a damper on their activities. That’s hardly anything new. What in life has not been drastically adjusted because of the current state of infection in our world and our country, all the way to our own doorsteps? It was sad, though — these club members who have faithfully attended their meetings for years, some for decades, suddenly looking at each other across a streaming platform on their computers.
“Hey, buddy, you’re on mute. Nobody can hear you. (Insert Zoom laughter here.)”
At some point, we hope sooner rather than later, humans will get the upper hand on this thing and life will return to some semblance of normalcy. What that will look like, we don’t really know. Many people have said they don’t think that new normal will look a lot like the old normal. Like those European air kisses and blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. Those might be slow to return or not at all.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The “ennui” part of the story was the membership to these organizations. The folks that were talked to for the story said, for the most part, their ranks were filled by those who were getting up in years. They are men and women in their 70s and 80s, some “attending” meetings from their nursing and retirement homes.
Why is that? Well, it could be that young people think of these outfits as their father’s or grandfather’s clubs. Perhaps the younger set is helping give back to the world by doing other things that we aren’t aware of. But they obviously, by and large, are not showing up to throw their shoulders into the civic projects that these clubs have taken on.
And that’s the unfortunate bit about this because civic clubs, as surely as their luncheon chicken breast is a bit on the rubbery side — well, when they were able to meet for lunch — are busy about something that’s good for the world.
The effort that caught our eye was how the Rotary clubs in Pine Bluff — both of them — had teamed up together to put a book in a young person’s hands every month for their first few years of life. It’s all done through a foundation set in motion by Dolly Parton. The Rotarians have all sorts of statistics to show how that financial commitment is a good one, particularly in a place like Pine Bluff where many families may not have the money to buy books for their children so the children can be read to.
And even though these Rotarians don’t talk or think about it every week, one of Rotary’s big goals is to eradicate polio across the planet. And if you missed the story late last month, let us refresh your memory: Late last month, Africa was considered free from the wild polio virus. That was after a three-decade campaign to end the disease, which used to paralyze 75,000 children every year on the continent. The struggle is not over, but the point is that the collective heft of such civic clubs has helped change the course of history. Obviously, the more oomph there is behind that wheel, the quicker it moves.
For that reason, we call on young people to take up that mantle. Certainly, the carpet is out for them. John Henry, a Kiwanian and a former managing editor at The Commercial, put it thusly: He said the false perception is that the club is populated by “a bunch of old white guys” who have money and go to the country club for lunch, adding that the club needs to do a better job of reaching out to all kinds of people to be members.
Yes, but those people need to reach out, as well.