Novelist Ann Patchett recently wrote an op-ed in the New York Times telling of her one-year moratorium on frivolously spending. With enough shoes and clothes to last a lifetime, Patchett swore off falling victim to the latest fad.
This is not to espouse banning our downtown merchants — especially at this time of year. But it does give one pause to considers what one considers a good investment.
THE COUNTRY over, rural America is suffering.
Our young are flocking to urban areas more than ever because that’s not only where the jobs are but also because cities are more racially and culturally diverse.
Take Blue Valley school district in Johnson County, for example. Of its 22,000 students, more than 10 percent report a home language other than English. The top five of the 75 non-English languages spoken among its students are Spanish, Telugu (India), Chinese, Urdu (Pakistan) and Korean. Such diversity helps make students aware of a bigger world. Local students, especially, learn of the emphasis families from other countries, particularly India and China, put on education.
This year alone, 52 Blue Valley students were named as National Merit semifinalists, the country’s preeminent scholarship program.
The majority of Blue Valley residents are under the age of 40. Median income is $105,000. This is a community of the up-and-coming; a place where high achievers like to live.
Somewhat unfairly, many of today’s young view rural America as backward because it lacks such diversity, but more so an attitude that welcomes change.
This is one reason why this fall’s award as a Culture of Health by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is such a big deal. On a national scale, Allen County was recognized as a pocket of possibility.
So what makes us stand out? Namely our willingness to take risks for the public good by:
• Voting to build a new county hospital;
• Putting public funds toward building a new grocery store;
• Attracting a federally qualified health center that provides free and reduced-price health care;
• Supporting healthy activities by building 25 miles of rail trails;
• Restricting youth access to tobacco with the Tobacco 21 initiative, and
• Continuing community conversations that help locals picture and work together on what they’d like their future to look like.
ALL OF THESE endeavors required an attitude of giving, not taking, and decisions by county and city leaders on what helps the greater good, not a special few.
We are lucky to have in our midst people like Tracy Keagle of Humanity House, our “Ghost of Christmas Present,” reminding us of those less fortunate. Always wearing a smile, Tracy is a role model for showing how acts of kindness strengthen families and communities.
Public officials, especially, will always be faced with requests for spending. Deciding factors should be based on whether they help the public at large by making for a more prosperous community.
It’s these kinds of investments — public and private — that will help take us forward. Without them, we’ll all be the poorer.
— Susan Lynn
