We're in desperate need of community as a nation

Loneliness is killing us.

I was reading an article not too long ago about the effects of loneliness on humanity. It wasn't particularly eye opening, as I'm accutely aware of the impact of loneliness on not only myself, but those closest to me, but it caught my attention nonetheless.

I retired from the Army in 2023. I served 21 years, and I'm confident that isolation, whether it be physically, mentally or both, was the overwhelming reason there is so much suicide among active duty service members and veterans alike.

An article from the VA in 2023 states, "loneliness is among the strongest predictors of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and other suicidal behavior." To carry on in that same theme, the University of Sydney just released a study that found that "women who felt lonely over an extended period of time were three times more likely to die early than women who did not report feelings of loneliness." Again, this is does not shock nor surprise me. However, it hardens my resolve to ask "what can we do about it".

I don't say all of this to hit you with doom and gloom. Quite the opposite. I say all of this to highlight the incontrovertible fact that our ancestors have known for thousands of year, which is the realization that we are social creatures, hardwired for physical interaction with friends and family, otherwise known as community. We thrive as people when we're with friends.

I truly believe that social media robbed us of our humanity. The most incredible means of communication, the internet, led to the inevitable collapse of our healthy and needed engagement with other human beings. By and large, we don't know our neighbors anymore. If we do, it's usually a passing wave and acknowledgement before we go back inside our homes, pull out our devices and engage with complete strangers in an often toxic and unproductive way.

Even if this doesn't apply to you directly, the tertiary effects of this reality undoubtedly affect your existence in some manner and have ultimately led to more division with a focus on events far from the local community people should be focused on.

Social media, big media and even LOCAL media often hyper focus on national and international events. The same big money that controls big media also controls what gets covered in your local news. Sure, you might be able to find some relevant and important articles that affect your immediate ecosystem from time to time, but the events we used to discuss around the water cooler in a small town environment rarely see the light of day. The larger world opens up to us on social media, but the community engagement needed to feed our souls disappears when we stop engaging with those around us.

The COVID lockdowns woke us up. I don't think I even need to explain why. We all saw how crippling the isolation was, and it made us hyper aware of our need to exist among nature and interact with our fellow man. Despite that reality, the internet, and social media, are here to stay (barring a power grid collapse or something of that nature, which seems more and more like a possibility these days).

Our Country Our Choice was created to fix this issue and connect people with those in their community who specifically believe in America First and want to address the issues in our nation on a deeper level, recognizing that local community is where that change must begin. We faltered a bit as an organization for various reasons, but we're about to launch our membership portal on May 5, and the entire focus is on engaging with those in your immediate area so you actually have the option of planning events, meeting up locally, and creating a real flesh and blood community of like minded inviduals who want to save this country at the grassroots level.

I like to think of it as something similar to the VFW, or what the VFW used to be for local veterans anyways. The ability to discuss, gather and fellowship together; to focus on issues through a private membership platform and then take action on them together. Or just meet up to have a barbecue. OCOC is a movement for Americans who love their country and want to actually do something rather than simply complain about what's happening on social media and watch as big donor money maintains its stranglehold on Washington.

We want our country back, we want our communities back, and we want to see our families thrive with friends who believe what we believe and share our same values. We want our kids to learn in environments free from propaganda that lies and seeks to pervert their minds. We want our local leaders to address the issues we voted them into office for, and if they don't, we'll assemble to vote them out. This isn't an overnight project. It will take time and perseverance. We'll start now, we'll invite our friends and family to join us, and we'll lead our nation through the fire and into a better future for all.