Taking A Stand: People yearn for sense of identity
This is the last of a three-part series on what the people of Warren County want. The first two installments dealt with our need for good jobs and a safe place to live. The last deals with the need to keep our identity.
Let me start out by saying that if you are in love with Murfreesboro then rent yourself a U-Haul and drive 45 minutes northwest and I’m sure they’ll sell you a place up there. I strongly suspect the people of Warren County do not want to end up in the situation our big brother to the north is in where it is ballooning in size, unable to meet its growth needs.
Granted, growth to a degree is good, but unbridled growth without an infrastructure plan to accommodate such growth is a nightmare. Such growth not only leaves traffic snarls from underdeveloped road systems, but it also saps away a town’s identity and disenfranchises the people there as they get blended into the big melting pot.
Instead, the people of Warren County want to keep their identity as Hometown, USA where a person can raise a family and feel part of something special instead of being just a number in a hustle-bustle metropolis.
Folks here enjoy a slower pace of life. They enjoy the fact that everybody knows everybody. They enjoy the Viola Homecoming, the Warren County A&L Fair, the Autumn Street Fair, softball games at Midway, fish dinners at Morrison Ruritan and mudbogs at Harrison Ferry. They enjoy all the things that go hand in hand with being a tight-knit community. It’s things like this which makes smaller towns like ours special, and by town, I mean the entire Warren County experience. No, it doesn’t come up and slap you in the face with flashing neon and bright lights, but instead it entices you over time, giving you that feeling of belonging you can’t get in the bigger towns.
But, at the same time, as we are enjoying this identity, we don’t want to rot on the vine from stagnation brought about by stifled growth and lack of opportunities which is brought about by a reluctance to change at all in fear that we will lose our identity. A place which does not grow will eventually wither away, taking with it all the good things.
This ultra conservatism and resistance to change is something which has caused us to miss our ship, so to speak, when it comes to being progressive. Over the years, some of us have been afraid to pursue things like high-tech industry and even a four-year college here, because it was feared it would negatively impact our small town appeal. However, I say we can have progress and keep our identity.
In fact, an infusion of economic security and commerce would only serve to strengthen our communities by a partnership with industry, whereby business could help support community endeavors. If you’ll look at most of the bigger businesses here, they are giving back to the community through programs and donations, not to mention the tax dollars they put into the system. When you add this to the jobs they can provide our communities and their ability to entice this and future generations to stay and live in Warren County for good jobs, then we have a win-win situation.
What we have to do is sell this partnership first to our leaders, and then to those industries and businesses out there looking for a corporate home that isn’t surrounded by concrete and steel. In this computer age, you don’t have to be on Times Square to be in the middle of the economic market. Instead, technology has afforded business the luxury of coming to places like Warren County where life is a little slower and there is a feeling of identity.
(Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at news@southernstandard.com.)