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Show Letter to the Editor... Dear Sam, Not long ago someone in the community made the comment that they believed, "the school system pretty much reflected the attitude of the community." commun-ity." So this got me wondering if maybe the problems in our community pretty much reflected reflec-ted the attitudes of the leadership in this community or the lack of it. I've only lived here five years and don't qualify myself as one of the more known leaders of the community, if appointed positions and elected elect-ed positions are one of the criteria we might use for a measuring stick. Never have I been satisfied that I contribu ted enough and never have I been satisfied that the community comm-unity leaders have done enough. In the five years I've lived here the juvenile delinquency delin-quency has increased, major crimes have increase, lack of discipline in the schools has increased, the police force has increased and up until about eight months ago or so, the dog problem was unbelievable. unbeliev-able. SOMEONE, however decided to do something about the dog problem and I don't . mean to limit the efforts of all involved, ' but that someone had to get the ball rolling. We are a town of approximately approxi-mately five thousasnd people, many thinking they know at least part of the town's problems and I'm sure many dissatisfied with the way many things are being handled, but at a stand still to know, and in some cases, to -do anything about it. One of the main reasons for this is that nobody has all the answers and some of the correct solutions to problems are not recognized when they are presented or accepted either. Of course, there are no easy answers to any of the problems, we all know that. i Chuck McMurray, I believe, I touched on some good points ! in an article he had printed in : the Times, but nothing ever j came of it, at least to my j knowledge. Thomas Brumley j has made a few points that I j certainly deserve considera- J tion, but not much has come of f 3 them either, the dump being 3 an example of one of the ' things he mentioned. j1 You made a comment in one J of your editorials about a good if meeting (public meeting) that was held over at the court ij house because no one got . emotional and every one left f feeling that something had f been accomplished, even ; though there were no easy ft answers. So, we go on and on. We all know that the mere ft mentioning of a problem or a solution is only the beginning of solving it, someone has to ; pick up the ball and RUN with it. And that statement brings us back to the heart of the problem, I believe; do we really have the leadership of someone who will, "run with the ball?" I don't mean, do we have the people with the ability, but do we have or have we had the people in the leadership positions with the ability or real desire to SOLVE the problems we have. Right, now, we are talking about combining the City and County governments and hiring hir-ing a manager. Although this is an important job and one which does require something more than a person having a successful business to do the job, it is not one that couldn't be handled by someone in this community. The overtone I keep hearing, however, "it must be someone who has the expertise in that field." This is just as misguiding as if I were to say; the social problems of this community can not be solved unless we bring some one in who has the expertise to solve our social problems. The question I ask myself is, will we let the individual be the City Manager after he is hired? If you say to me; "we have had good leadership in this community and have got along pretty well up til now" and if you are thoroughly convinced of that then I don't believe anything I will say will make much difference so let me rave on just a bit more. Leadership is not popularity. popular-ity. Leadership isn't the ability to see the problems, but to act upon them and maybe even make a mistake in trying to solve them. When was the last time any leadership in this community made a big enough mistake socially or otherwise that made you and I feel we could have done better. You mean, we've just been lucky enoueh that no one's made a mistake? Oh come on now, you can surely do better than that. You mean, "the best plans of mice and men never go astray?" Or did we sweep the last big mistake under the rug so nobody would find out? Which would be the worse? If you want to confront me with several cliches such as; "if you're so dam smart why aren't you in there or why don't you do something about it, if you've got all the answers," ans-wers," please don't waste your time or mine. I've offered my service in case you would like to know, but I don't believe that is important. I read an article and it said in part; "if we had the leadership could the problems really be solved or has bureaucracy gotton so completely com-pletely out of control that no one seems to be able to do anything. Did you know that OTHER towns have solved many of their major problems to the point where they have gained nationwide recognition recogni-tion for it? Did you know and most important, do you believe that Moab, Utah could do the same thing, right here and we could start right now. How- ever, we'll need the leadership in the community to do it, and Ch: a lot of help from people liie tisim you and I. pend Possilby, I have dealt with to perVi much in order to be more ads, i specific about the things I have Inser talked about and I've been are r warned against things like the r this. I don't think we're going edac to solve the problems by bille saying all the right things at all Disp the right times, but by doing lines something even if we make l type mistake. ads Dave Munden Min ari |
