A Natter Bench has been installed in a Horsforth park in a bid to help tackle loneliness after lockdown. The 2.4 metre bench will allow for socially distanced chats and is the first of its kind in Leeds. Horsforth ward councillors Jonathon Taylor, Dawn Collins and Jackie Shemilt have secured funding for the bench, which has been put in place in Hall Park ready for the end of the current lockdown period. If the scheme proves successful councillors hope others could be put in place across Leeds. The idea came from a Facebook community group, where residents discussed noticing more elderly people sat alone as lockdown restrictions were eased last year.
Howard Richards
Now is a time to emphasize what we should always do anyway, namely: align across sectors for the common good.
The unbounded idea includes sharing surplus, moving resources from where they are not needed to where they are needed, following the ancient principle Pope Francis is now repeating in one form or another almost every day: our property belongs not only to us but also to those we can help with our surplus.
It is about peace by peaceful means; education, ethics, and practical applications; more than about playing hardball with people who choose to live by a different philosophy.
Three Steps We Can All Take to Create a More Civil Society
It’s a bitter joke: the only thing Americans seem able to agree on is that we’re deeply divided.
But while the second half of that one-liner is both empirically and experientially true, the first half is decidedly not. As Americans and as moral actors we have some common dreams for the country we live in, and some shared vision of what living in a good society must be like.
Finding the things that will bring us together seems like an impossible task right now, but the Civil Society Fellowship, a partnership of ADL and the Aspen Institute, is offering a starting point. The Fellowship recently held a town hall for fellows and guests from all around the nation, with the goal of helping America become a place that lives up to its ideals.