Letter: Time to Look at Local Needs
Larry Cooke
August 29, 2008
Rutland Herald
As the national drama of the election cycle peaks, and hopefully gives us some peace in the weeks before the actual presidential election, it is time to think locally. National and international issues are beginning to suck the lifeblood from our communities' resources.
Thomas Friedman's New York Times column of Aug. 27, "A Biblical Seven Years," contrasts what has happened since 2001 in China vs. America. China has had seven years of planning. In that time they built architecture, highways, magnetic trains — a dazzling splendor in Beijing, Shanghai. Dalian — (Dalian? I never heard of it before today, and now it's one of the world's premier cities.)
Friedman points out that while "China was building stadiums, subways, roads, and parks, America was building better metal detectors, armored Humvees, and pilotless drones."
With that reminder, it's time for us to look locally, to our planning and budgeting cycles. We should favor schools, roads, and bridges over more prisons and more police doing marijuana arrests. It's time to look towards the positive needs of our society and let go of the bogeyman. We'll have to sacrifice something, but then, after a time, we will have something more than rusted bridges and Humvees to look at.
Larry Cooke, Sudbury |
