Community: Fifty Shades of Meaning

“The county, which owns the 88-acre property housing The Ponds at Battle Creek golf course, has been working with the city of Maplewood to reconfigure the property. Citing poor earnings, the county had planned to close The Ponds in December. When the community pushed back, the county agreed to delay the closure…" --- St. Paul Pioneer Press, March 2, 2021

Who exactly pushed back? The neighbors? The city council of Maplewood? Golfers? The cast of "Caddyshack"?

“What does your organization do for the greater community?” -- Karla Hult, reporter for KARE11 TV, interviewing someone from a drug treatment program about support for graduates.

In the same story, one of the graduates referred to “the recovery community.” I suppose the greater community is a very large area which may include the recovery community, which I suppose includes people recovering from addiction and their families and their friends and their employers and coworkers and neighbors and the cops who busted them and… Once again, the term is so broad and so vague that it has almost no meaning.

“…to be connected to a local agent in your community.” --- Part of an ad for health insurance (Aetna).

Where else would a local agent be?

“As chef Jack Riebel -- co-owner of The Lexington -- prepares to undergo an aggressive fourth treatment for neuroendocrine cancer, the Twin Cities community is rallying around him.” --- from Pioneer Press web site March 8, 2021.

We’re all pulling for Mr. Riebel, but only in “the Twin Cities community?” What about the suburbs?

“A neighborhood advocacy group is seeking community members interested in planning a downtown St. Paul park.” -- Pioneer Press web summary March 17, 2021

Isn’t a neighborhood advocacy group already composed of community members? How about ‘residents’ or ‘people’?

“Thank you for the honor of representing our communities in the state legislature.” --- Opening sentence on a postcard from our state representative.

I don’t know which communities he’s talking about. He represents a legislative district, so presumably he’s talking about all the communities in the district, so he should simply say “our district.”

“TPT 2020 Annual Report to the Community.” --- Title of the annual report by Twin Cities Public Television.

Why not just call it the annual report?

“Benjamin Moore is committed to community at this time.” --- Banner near the top of the main page at Benjamin Moore paints web site.

I don’t even know what to say to this bit of corporate balderdash.

“Thanks for your participation in the Fine Arts at our community’s public schools.” – In a letter from the Northfield Fine Arts Boosters.

Just say “our public schools” because we already know that those schools are in our community.

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If you feel tempted to use the word “community”’ please pause and consider something more concrete or specific. Customers. The city. The school district. Employees. Constituents. Voters. Members. Think hard about who you’re actually talking about or talking to. Just because the word feels kind of cozy and friendly and do-gooderish, “community” is really amorphous and ambiguous. That is my message to the writing community.

While you ponder this, please enjoy a somewhat related video from the distant past. You might become a reluctant member of the nostalgia community.