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Community Corner

Opinion: Let Us Declare a 'National Awareness Year'

We should declare an entire year to be on guard.

It seems every day, week, and month is set aside to highlight an organization or cause. Recently, I missed national donut day and felt guilty later when I realized I had a free day coming not to feel bad about enjoying donuts.

The range of awareness issues are kept before the public in order to call attention to certain needs and causes in our culture. I see the positive side of that type of promotion. Many people would never think about certain causes if there were not a day when it would be designated as such. In no way would I ever suggest we need to rethink the way some of the events are planned to promote real causes of harm against animals, people or the environment. We need to be aware and we need to pay attention to certain aspects of causes within each of the segments of society.

Could we stop abuse of others, animals and the environment by being more aware of what is taking place around us? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Saying all of that, I am suggesting we start a promotion of being aware all the time of needs around us. I know some people will think this is silly and with all the other issues of the day we are facing a waste of time, but hear me out on this. While I have been laid up for a few days, I was able to watch lots (too much) of television. One of the things I noticed is the number of people who are prowling around all hours of the day and night to see what they can get into. I noticed crimes being committed during the day, early morning, midday, evening, night and overnight in almost every city anywhere around the metro area. Do the predators never sleep? Are there people walking around seeking to bring harm to others at all hours? The answer to both questions is yes.

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I have come to understand they work in shifts. The abuse of animals, people and the environment can occur in daytime or night. We should declare an entire year when we are going to be on guard. Being on duty around our neighborhood and those we love would surely begin to cut down on the number of crimes being committed. Spouse or child abuse certainly occurs at all hours, day and night in our culture. Those of us who are able to be working and out in public should take notice of the actions of others. Family members would want to be able to know if other family members were being abused and take action to bring the abuse to an end. Let us have “National Awareness Year.” It has been said that everybody’s business is nobody’s business. I don’t know if that is true. The more eyes looking out for each other, the better we would be as a community. This is not a suggestion to meddle but to show our concern for others. From where I stand, we all need to be more aware of what is going on around us.

Follow Ray Newman on Twitter @RayNewmanSr

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