Opinion: Shining A Light On Shasta County’s “Underground Good”

Ed Note: This Opinion piece is part of our new column, Underground Good. We’re using the series to provide a window into the inspirations, habits and mindsets of ordinary people whose actions are changing our community for the better . . . in hopes of inspiring more good. It’s written by educator, writer, program evaluator, and Resilience and Equity Coach, Sharon Brisolara, who holds a masters in Human Service Administration and a PhD in Program Evaluation and Planning, with concentrations in Rural Sociology and Women’s Studies, both from Cornell University.

In 2022, I explored with Shasta Scout readers some of the complex questions that lie at the heart of social justice efforts: why the words we use matter, what accountability means, and how we undermine public safety by finding someone to blame. 

This year, my column will shift to focus on how we embody, or live out, some of these concepts by working in a myriad of unseen ways to create a better world. Underground Good is a title, and an idea, that came from a reader wanting us to share more stories of ordinary people enacting good. 

The concept resonated with me as a sociologist, someone who continually reflects on how to contribute to social good and who studies how social problems can be solved. As a sociologist, I focus on systems and structures that shape us and how we, as groups and individuals, also shape systems and structures in powerful ways.

While most of what we read in newspapers is about what isn’t working around us, it’s clear to me that focusing on good is a critical part of our community’s current challenge: finding a way past prevailing narratives of conflict to work together towards collaboration, cooperation, and kindness.

The truth is, every day, humans act and interact in ways that are life giving and supportive; helping each other without need for acknowledgement or recompense. The good we do may be motivated by duty, moved by faith or compassion, or come from a sense of what is right or just.

Regardless of the motivation, countless acts of kindness, compassion, and service swirl around us unseen everyday, knitting together the fabric of the present and shaping the future. I’m excited to use this space to explore the unacknowledged good enacted all around us by ordinary people: regular, imperfect human beings who don’t hold important positions, have unlimited resources, or win Citizen of the Year awards but who are nevertheless changing things for the better.

We humans are made of strength and struggle, beautiful in our particular brokenness. We interact with a world that’s also broken and beautiful. To contribute to a more just, loving world, we must allow ourselves to be moved by good, to lift up what heals, and find our own small ways to do and become part of what nurtures good.

I’m looking forward to bringing you into my conversations with people just like you and me who regularly engage in small and significant acts of all kinds of good for the benefit of others. Each month I’ll bring you a column that’s focused on someone doing underground good. I’ll ask what motivates and sustains them, and learn how their small acts make important differences in Shasta County communities. In the process, we hope to remind our readers of the good all around us, and inspire even more.

We recognize that ordinary people are not saints. They may not always embody the standards they set or the values they hold dear; they are not perfect nor are all of their actions aligned. They may not have recognizable power or status.

And yet .  .  our communities are far better for the good they do.

Because the very nature of “Underground Good” is that it is often unseen, we hope you’ll help us shine a light on good by nominating someone you know below!