I work in a grocery store that was built during the mid 1980s. 15 aisles. We know many of the customers by name. It's what once was called a "neighborhood" store. There is a sense of community.

Super-Wal Marts, Super-Targets...these gigantic stores tend to destroy our sense of community. They're so huge, poorly staffed (because the powers-that-be are more interested in labor costs than in taking care of customers, or concern for "associates"), they create a deep sense of stress, and anonymity. They are unpleasant to visit, and evidently for the most part, a nightmare to work in.

I see a possible return to the smaller stores, in no small part due to the electing of Barack Obama as our next president. I see our re-focusing on family (really meaning it, not just lip-service).

"The day I'm inaugurated, I think this country looks at itself differently." --BHO.

I've said before that to me, an optimist is one looking at a problem while still knowing there's a solution. I see the humanity that came together to bring a new voice into power; I see that humanity here on this site, and elsewhere. That is the whole point, isn't it?

Humanity. Community. John F. Kennedy said, "...we all breathe the same air..." He also said, "we should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes."

We can make this country a good place to live. Is that simplistic, or simple? Far too many of us think we are individually powerless. But this is not so. As I stood with my wife on our front lawn, watching the gorgeous red fireworks down the street after Obama gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, our neighbors next door, on their lawn, joyous cheers from around the neighborhood...I knew then what previously I had only suspected. We really can do this. We do have power, and this site, added to sites like it, can be (in part) the tools for exercising that power.

It is important to be able to walk into a store and be greeted by name, or at least recognized as a familiar face (the root word for "familiar" is family.) It matters that people begin to really see one another again. The little things matter. Holding a door open for the one behind us, letting another car in our lane...these are signs of a healthy community, a society of humanity.