How do we reclaim our sense of community, the understanding that we have a stake in our neighbors’ dreams and struggles, as well as our own? I’ve been circling around this question for many years — perhaps my entire adult life. It feels especially urgent in these fractured times. And as time goes on, I find that I keep landing on these basic truths about community. 

We are divided in part because we don’t know each other. In the haste and fullness of our lives, just trying to keep up and keep going, we have lost real insight into and understanding of who our neighbors are and why they see the world as they do. We have no time to listen and little patience to try with those we don’t already know. We lose trust.

As distant corporate interests buy up local media, there is less local news and more canned, regurgitated “content.” It’s all about outrage, indignation and one-upmanship. It contributes to our coming apart, and does a disservice to our democracy as well as our relationships.

People have an innate hunger for meaningful relationships, for community itself. The way modern life crowds out the time to make those bonds does not make us crave it any less. It’s worth seeking out. And as we do, I think we can begin to hear each other, again or for the first time, over the din of division that occupies most “news.” 

Let’s face it: what’s even worse than our divisions is that it is so easy to divide us. And that’s because we don’t know each other. We place others in a box and let others do the same to us. The ties that bind us — family, neighborhood, opportunity, fairness — are fraying. We seem defined sometimes by our associations alone or by the latest outrage.

The global pandemic made the sense of isolation worse. Some of us were able to quarantine and to continue our lives, loves and livelihoods in a narrower circle. Others kept the world going on the frontlines, whether at the hospital or the grocery store, sometimes grossly unsupported. Meanwhile, centuries-old injustices faced by Black and brown folks, and more recent economic disparities faced by working people everywhere, were exposed for all to see. For the first time in a long time, free of our usual distractions, we listened.

As we emerge from the pandemic, society should seize the opportunity to recalibrate, refocus and reclaim that stake in each other, to rebuild our sense of local, statewide and national community. So what can we do? Well, this is a good first step. Welcome to Central Mass Town Square, your source for honest, community-focused stories — a place to learn about the good work being done by your neighbors and maybe even share your own. This venture uses new tools to deliver an old ideal: reliable news about your community in the voices of your community. 

I’m excited about Central Mass Town Square because it’s one way to help us know more about each other, beyond the narrow boxes we put each other in, beyond the limits on our views and motivations that we presume about each other, as neighbors. As part of a community. I hope it piques your interest — and earns your trust.

Deval Patrick is the former Governor of Massachusetts and co-chair of American Bridge 21st Century.