A new day, a new month, a new year, a new decade. Welcome to 2011.

Resolutions so often fall flat. Either the conviction to make them happen wanes or their unrealistic nature renders them unachievable.

What if we started small with our resolutions for the coming year? Whether you call it paying it forward or random acts of kindness or following the golden rule – let’s start by first being more focused on family and friends.

What would your home life be like if you turned off the television a little more often and played a game or talked to each other? Start with doing it once a month. Fond memories are not created in front of the TV.

Look at how you define family. It doesn’t have to involve blood relations. Families come in many forms.

What would your street or neighborhood be like if you helped each other shovel or blow the driveway? Maybe you would learn that person’s name instead of just waving. Maybe it would all get done faster because of the camaraderie involved instead of the drudgery of doing it alone.

What about a neighborhood block party when it warms up?

What about a few households bonding over a barter club where you do work for each other? Think of the skill set involved with a group compared to doing it solo or as a couple.

Slowly, that sense of community begins to build at the most local of all levels – in your home, on your street.

Imagine this spreading.

What if you take this sense of togetherness and bring it to work? Would the phrase “hostile work environment” disappear? It’s time for bosses to spare an employee to leave his or her desk to shovel the sidewalk or go do it themselves. It’s time to take pride in what buildings look like, what the landscaping looks like, the cleanliness of the parking lot.

It’s time to have a sense of pride in your community. Government is not the answer. People are the answer.

It’s time to look in the mirror to see who is responsible for making South Lake Tahoe, the South Shore, the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, Nevada and the United States of America all better places to live, work and play.

Lake Tahoe News would like to publish your stories in 2011 about how you are making your slice of the world a better place. Maybe what you are doing will trigger others to do the same or come up with a different idea. Send your stories, with your name (yes, it will be published), and phone number (it will not be published) to info@LakeTahoeNews.net.

Happy New Year from Lake Tahoe News.