Free Essay On Communities

The word community is derived from a Latin word communitas, meaning together as one, fellowship, or an organized social unit. This word community can be defined using two very distinct meanings. The first meaning is a community as a social unit of people bound together by their common values. Some of the common values that can bind a community together include lifestyle, religion, hobbies, and interests among others. Therefore, using this definition, it is clear that a community may be larger than a village, settlement or district. This is considering that people from different settlements may share the same values, which makes them one community. The second definition is derived from biology; where a community is a group of living organisms that share the same environment. Clearly, the second definition is distinct from the first with the main difference being that, in the first definition, the environment is not used as a factor in determining a community, which is case in the second definition. Although this definition may vary from the first one, it is commonly used in the subject of understanding the traits of different living things that live together as one.
The materials that we reviewed have different notion with regard to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ communities. In the first material, that is the movie The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, we see a community given places to live. This is considering that most of the people were poor. According to the first residents of Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, the houses they were given were nice, which was proved when some of them described them as a ‘poor man's penthouse’. In addition, the children were given spaces where they would play without any risks of injury that may occur to them as was the case in the previous settings. The movie, which was produced by Chad Freidrichs underplayed two very crucial myths that were a major cause of concern for the first residents of Pruitt-Igoe. The first myth was that, houses built by a Japanese contractor were meant to fail, which is a fact that has been refuted by urban historians who say that the houses were better off from those they lived before. The other myth that has been downplayed is that the place was crappy. This is where the first residents claim the place was paradise where families would be able to enjoy each other.
The movie shows a community that accepts each other regardless of the social status that one may hold in society. This is a very good example of a notion about a ‘good’ community whereby the government is willing to take care of the interest of the society. In addition, this movie provides a clear picture of what a ‘good’ community is supposed to do in times when there is any problem. In the movie, the government intervened for the community by demolishing the previous houses, which has images of trash, sewer leaks, and general decay everywhere proving that any given community can be ‘good’ to its people without being biased of the social status. This also proved the importance of one unit in a community, as this may help in designing the quality and a community type that we may want for ourselves and for the coming generations.
On the contrary, we also reviewed a movie by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin that is Trouble the Water, which shows a community that has been neglected in the times of distress. The movie is about the city of New Orleans where a failure in the levee system led to flooding in over 80% of the city. The movie provides first-hand experience of some of the victims that were caught up in Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed homes and lots of property. As the storm was intensifying in the city, most of the families opted to stay indoors, but when the levee broke, the streets started flooding and Scott Roberts and his family found themselves stuck in the attic. On the realization that no immediate help was coming, they decided to find a way out, which was all captured on tape. Celebrities and politicians around the country debated the issues, but discarded it quickly leaving the victims to rebuild their own lives alone. When trying to file their grievances with FEMA, their efforts were thwarted and the thought discarded.
This is a very good example of the typical notion of a ‘bad’ community considering that the government was not willing to support the victims in times when they needed help to rebuild their own lives. As opposed to the first movie, this shows a community that is willing to neglect its own people especially in desperate times. This movie, on the other hand, shows that the government is biased on the decisions it makes on some of the members of the community on the basis of the social status. This is considering that after the victims lost everything in the storm, their grievance were discarded and were thwarted using a bureaucratic red tape. The contrast in the two movies shows that different communities may have different notions towards the members of the communities.
A community can be planned and designed wholly by the members of the same community. Every aspect of the planning and designing of the community must be taken into consideration during the process of building a community. This is to make sure that the community reflects interests of all the members in the community, and that no member may have any discomfort. In addition, the planning and designing of a community will help all members to understand their different roles in the community and most importantly, how to handle matters arising in the same community. Planning and designing a community will also help in setting up the basic rules and regulations that are to be followed by all members of the same community, as well as, punishments to be set for those that will disobey the set rules and regulations. This will reduce cases where members of a community do not fully understand the pros and cons of the community, which may land them into trouble with other members of the same community.
All good communities share the same traits in that they respect and protect the rights of every member of the community. In addition, all good communities have the same target which is the protection of every member of the community from any external harm that may befall him / her while in the unit of a community. This is a trait categorized in all communities considered to be ‘good’ in the sense that they can create a conducive environment where every member of the same community will realize his / her own destiny and purpose and ,at the same time, nurture the talents and dreams of other members of the same community.