America's Communities are Working Even if the American Community is Not

Judging by much of the national dialogue, America is coming apart. You would never know that if you had attended the recent concert of the Crozet Community Orchestra, held in the Crozet Baptist Church in my small town snuggled against the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia.

The chance to attend a free concert by a stellar group of musicians filled the sanctuary.  In fact, the only ones who paid were the orchestra members. Their orchestra fee helps make such evenings possible.  The orchestra depends on them in more ways than just their musical talent - and on donations such as those dropped in a jar at the entrance to the church.  It is clearly the love of music that draws the players - a mixture of amateurs, students, retirees, advanced beginners, and professionals.  The rest of us are drawn by the soul's need that the arts satisfy so well. 

Some might wonder about the quality of a small-town orchestra, but they would be foolish. The conductor and music director, Philip Clark, was born in England, has played with orchestras around the world, worked with such greats as Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich, and taught in the U.K. and New Zealand before coming here. The operatic soloists who performed in the program, which included selections as diverse as Mozart, Dvorak, Puccini, and Jule Styne, included a soprano who has performed at Carnegie Hall, among others whose voices resounded in beautiful harmony. Then there was 12-year-old Noah Ginsberg, whose piano and voice filled the sanctuary with "Your Song" by Elton John.

But it was not just the orchestra's quality on display.  It was also the quality of the community that has nurtured it in the five years since its founding.  Crozetians, as we call ourselves, contain many of the differences you see on the American landscape.  There are liberals and conservatives, church goers and secularists, those who work with their hands and those whose paid work is more cerebral, those who love their guns and those who would rather never see one, vegetarians, vegans, and those who relish a good burger.   But there is one thing we share - a dedication to making our community work.  The standing ovation at the end of the concert showcased another: pride in who we are and what we can accomplish together.

In that, we are like other communities all across America, big and small. If national affairs is consumed with how we divide America, local affairs is about how we unify Americans for the common good.  If Congress is about gridlock, the Crozet Community Advisory Council and the Crozet Community Association are about sweeping away the barriers to local betterment.  If interest-group politics is about how we carve up the funding pie, local-group conversations are about how we raise money to make it bigger. 

Crozet is not nirvana, and we are not saints.  We don't all share the same values, goals, or positions on issues.  We can argue with the best of them.  But, in the end, there is something for us more important than winning. There is a beating heart in any community, a spirit that is at the same time formative and formidable.  In this we are also like other communities in America.

The American community, that sense of who we are as a nation, the soul that holds us together, seems not nearly as reliable or robust.  This is sad and unhealthy.  Local communities thrive even better in a wider culture that supports and sustains them. 

Yet, local communities have been and will continue to be models of caring and accomplishment.  The experience in my home town is repeated in every state, red and blue, and  in every city and town.  We see it mostly in times of tragedy - when floods, forest fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, or mass shootings devastate a community, whose heart then beats even stronger with acts of compassion and generosity.  But it is there in so many smaller ways on a regular basis, whether it be local school events, fundraisers for causes as diverse as the disabled and the distraught, or events to recognize all those people who breathe life into our communities. 

Soon we'll have our annual Fourth of July Parade.  People will line Crozet Avenue as everything from fire trucks and emergency vehicles to marching bands, old veterans, and flatbed floats with candy-throwing youngsters remind us that we belong to America and to each other.  Despite the negativity that haunts our national conversation and media, Americans, individually and collectively, will be on display, evidence that we are stronger and richer when we are a community.

Photo Credit:  Tristan Williams: http://www.tristanwilliamsphotography.com.

Soloists pictured on stage: Soprano Heather Hightower (left) and Soprano Christina Fleming.