It Takes a Village to Raise a Village

   It takes a village to raise a village. You won't have the best of neighborhoods if some of its members are going astray. If you don't foster and love and teach each other, some will surely bend the wrong direction.
   Correction is needed not just for the child, but for the adult.
   Some will go astray, regardless, of course. But, more will be good if you have the courage and take the time to correct them. Correcting fellow adults, though, is not a common thing. Usually,when someone sees a friend doing something wrong, they say nothing. They simply let it slide.
   If there is someone needing correcting, and the others do not do that correcting, the correcting will not get done. And, nothing taught, is nothing learned.
   Society is no better than the values it teaches. So, it becomes important that those members who have the values are courageous enough to do the teaching. What is it the scripture says? "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." When you have good values, you should share them -- put them on a candlestick, so to speak.
   What would a child grow up to be like if the parents shied from the teaching? What if they were afraid to correct the child? Even so, it is with adults. If the others in the village shy from doing the correcting, the delinquent adult will be minus an impetus necessary for change.  Change is more is more likely when there is someone to advocate it. Without the help, the delinquent is often blind to his fault. Not wanting to see the error of his ways, he remains in it unless someone points it out.
   This principle also applies when there is a general fault in the community. If the group, as a whole, is wandering in to false paths, and adopting poor values, someone must have the courage to speak up.
  If society does not correct its own, it will never overcome its faults. If we are to be a good society, as a whole, we must reach out to our component members. We must not say, "Am I my neighbor's keeper?" Usually, we verbalize that with the different words, but words which mean the same thing. "It is none of my business," we say.
   It is our business. If a good neighborhood is to exist, it must bring up it's members. It takes a village to raise a village.