January 22, 2009

editorial

Nation, village on common path

Last Friday night, braving frigid weather and icy paths, more than 200 people crowded into the Glen Helen auditorium to hear economist Michael Shuman speak on the benefits of an economy based on locally-owned small businesses. And 70 villagers — as Shuman pointed out, an astonishing number for such a small town — gave up most of their weekend to brainstorm how to apply Shuman’s ideas to Yellow Springs. On Monday many villagers spent their day off marching in the cold to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On Tuesday the village seemed to erupt with excitement, as hundreds packed the Emporium and the Senior Center to watch Barack Obama make history. That night, even more people squeezed in to eat and dance together at a village inaugural celebration at the Bryan Center.

Most of us lead busy lives. We don’t need more things to do. So the popularity of these events speaks to Yellow Springers’ high level of civic engagement and their love of community, two of the great resources of our town.

Such engagement will be required if villagers follow through with the new ideas from the Shuman event. The opposite of a traditional economist, Shuman views a town’s economic well-being as everyone’s job, with the most vital town the one with the most creative start-ups, the most partnerships, the most shared knowledge and resources. This vision requires engaged and empowered citizens, just what we have in Yellow Springs.

These are also the qualities that President Obama is calling for on a national level.

“What is required of us now,” Obama said in his inaugural speech, “is a new era of responsibility, a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.”

Like the nation, Yellow Springs faces significant challenges. And in the village, as in the nation, it feels like a time of great hope. It’s the hope that flows from citizens giving their all, gladly, to a difficult task.

—Diane Chiddister