aka Ken Smith: A principle

I signed up for a committee that's going to help draft a section of the county's 20-year plan. As the different topics were being introduced for the various committees, the speaker kept saying that they overlapped. This seemed crucial.#

The farmland preservation committee overlaps with the environmental protection committee. The quality of life committee overlaps with both. The government policy committee probably overlaps with all of the other groups. And so forth.#

I was looking for a way to talk about that and this thought crossed my mind, especially for impoverished country towns and city neighborhoods, for declining industries and sites of racial and ethnic oppression: What kinds of changes would make it easier for the children to want to stay and live their lives here?#

It's a different question, maybe, on a farm and in a small town and in an urban neighborhood, but it's a question that pierces through everything. We need friends and family to hang around if we are really going to have the best options in life. We need them to have a good shot at jobs and health and happiness and safety, at education and decent housing, all the things that make a decent life. No matter their religion or their cultural background, people want young people to see that they have a chance.#

It's a question that might illuminate all the government groups. My first impression.#