Something to Think About

Unfair and unrealistic that’s what it feels like when people, companies, and organizations with the power to help keep giving to the same few over and over again, month after month, year after year.

Meanwhile, new or smaller groups working hard in the same communities get overlooked. They don’t get a chance to show what they can do, to share what they’ve built, or to help the same families we all claim to care about.

I’ve been in this public space long enough to see how too often, it becomes “pay to play.” You have to know someone, buy your way in, or keep certain people happy to stay part of the circle. That’s not fair it’s like playing a basketball game 5-on-5, but one team has a seven-footer who never leaves the floor. The others never get a real shot.

And because of that, nothing moves. The same few benefit, while the rest are left unheard. Emails go unanswered. Partnerships fade. The same families stay in need.

If COVID taught us anything, it’s that we are all the same when crisis hits. When resources are scarce, we must come together. But now, as life “returns to normal,” people have gone back to old habits forgetting what solidarity looks like.

It’s time to share the opportunity. Go back through those unread messages, those unopened letters, those overlooked requests. There are good people and good groups out there small, local, passionate who just need a chance to prove that their mission matters too.

Let’s open the door again. Let’s make fairness the standard, not the exception.