attitudes

Really got people going last week with the immigration thing.

I would say there is a difference between "being" a racist and having racially bad attitudes.
I guess everyone knows by now that the racism thing - or racist attitudes - is a hot button for me.

I dont want to call anyone that word. But when you go blaming problems on a certain race of people - i don't know what else you can call it.

Here is another post office story, from a different angle.
In South Carolina, a hot August afternoon. I pull up to the post office. All my windows are down, no auto-windows on this car. I have $3,000 worth of camera equipment laying in the seat.
Need to mail a package and have to go inside to pay postage.

Small post office in a rural area. When i drive up to the door there is no one around except this one guy standing by the door. He is black. Doesn't look unusual at all. He is just standing there. At the door, five feet or so from my car.

I really think i would have had the same concern if it had been a white guy, hispanic guy or whatever. Or even if it had been a female :) .
My concern was that I had to leave my camera stuff in the car and it was an easy target. And to roll up the windows would make it obvious that I did not trust the person, which is what was bothering me more than anything.

I was also concerned that he would think it was because of his color that I was locking up my car.
and as I said, these were manual windows. four of them. so whatever i did, would be obvious ..

So what to do?

What would you do?

An email on small steps

Here is an email I received from a friend from far away, about a post this morning. Just thought it was insightful.


"I guess it is true that changing a name of a pond isn't exactly earth shaking news that will change Arkansas City forever. But then again, if everyone took on a project of some kind ... it just might."

That's a great attitude to disseminate. The TV Age has reduced our hopes for making small changes and reduced our belief that small changes add up to great things. But in actuality, small changes are all anyone is ever allowed. We're not God, we're people. People are given small areas in which to be faithful to God's call.

And those "big stories" of "huge" improvements? They're all made up of small changes over a long period of time. It's enough that God allows us, no, encourages us to be co-creators with Him in His on-going work. Pretty amazing, actually. A God that wants to do things with us. WITH us! With US! Just way cool.

And He makes that possible with just the small items that are within our small reach. It's sad anyone ever sits at home and complains instead of jumping into the excitement right at their doorstep.

Andrea

Agents of change

With the talk about the role of the city commission, I wanted to talk a bit about something that actually happened.

You know they re-named the north pond, McFarland Pond at the meeting the other night. I know this isn't earth shaking news, and isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. It made Mrs. McFarland happy, and the family, which is one good result.

I just want to make the point of how it happened.

A group of people approached the commission and asked them. They had to go through channels, and they did, and the city gave the OK. (The request to open it up for fishing has not yet been approved, still some channels involved there.)

They were all Lions Club members, but it is not a Lions Club project.

THese are the same people - Bob Mathews, Gary Hale, and a couple others, - who got the name changed to Veterans Lake at 6th St. Pond.
The Lions CLub is building a small shelter and plans to put up a flagpole and a flag.

The guys who approached the commission are also heavily involved in the fishing derby, which is growing each year.

They wouldn't be above using McFarlands Pond - or even other ponds and or lakes - for future fishing derby's. In just four years they now have literally hundreds of kids involved.

These sames guys are trying to get Veterans Lake cleaned up. Theres a lot of brush, weeds, briars and such, that need to be cleaned up. They are trying to have a workday Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. They have made a fair amount of progress already.

They could sit around and moan about how the city isn't cleaning up Veterans Lake, and how it isn't fair that the north pond isn't named after the people who once owned the land. AND they could complain about kids hanging out causing trouble.

Or they could start a fishing derby to get kids involved in fishing, and then they could draw attention to the city's lakes by working toward getting them presentable and usable.

I guess it is true that changing a name of a pond isn't exactly earth shaking news that will change Arkansas City forever. But then again, if everyone took on a project of some kind ... it just might.

a suggestion

Many of you like to post anonymously, which is OK.
However, I know some post fairly regularly. It would be nice to be able to kind of keep track of who is who.
Could you guys just create a name to post with?
Would just be a way of being able to keep track and keep the conversation going.

Use any name you like.
what do you think?

Food for thought

I was at the post office yesterday.
Standing in line behind a clean cut looking young Mexican man. Well he might not have been Mexican, but he was Hispanic, and we tend to stereotype.
But.
The thing I noticed was, he was buying a money order for around $1,500. Looked like he was sending a registered letter back home with the money in it. His english was good.

What I thought about was this is local wages leaving the city - even the country.
What if he brought his family here and lived here. THose wages would also stay here.

How much money is leaving the area this way?

Maybe we should be encouraging people from other countries to move here and live - especially if they are working here already.
We do need more people, and if its a whole family, they may buy a house - which makes them taxpayers.

I dont care if they are from Mexico or Mongolia.

Ok, but we don't need anyone from Arkansas though, long story, but, there are limits to everything :)

almost meeting time

Just less than an hour until the next city commission meeting.
There's not a whole lot of interest on the agenda, but then that is relative to what you are interested in.

The land north of Skyline that was annexed for the possible Lowe's deal is set to be de-annexed, as per the original agreement. They have to have a public hearing on this. I'd bet a quarter no one shows up. But it would be a good time to ask about the future of the city and directions that might be taken.

About the only other thing is the assessments for mowing of weeds.

They might talk about goals some. Also the golf course is going to come up at some point.

I was not able to make it to the worksession last night, and those are usually more interesting than the regular meeting.

So ... who will be there from the public ?
hmmmm

visions of oklahoma city

Just got back from a weekend in Oklahoma City. I had never spent any time there before, but just a weekend there left me impressed.
I definitely want to go back. The rain all day Saturday pretty much prevented any exploring, so I managed a little on Sunday, but that was enough.

I went for a story telling festival. That was really cool. I would like to see us have one here.
Story telling is becoming a popular art form once again.
It's kind of like what Buckskin Joe does.

There were also some great eating establishments.

Also they have made their little canal into a nice walkway with coffee shops, night clubs and trendy little eating places, and such along the way. Very nice trail, and they even have boat rides on it.

Well it is a larger city, and they are always nice to visit. The thing I liked best was that it didn't "feel like" a big city. It felt kind of like a really really big small town, which was nice.
People were nice and friendly, helpful even, and it was fairly easy to get around.

I did a little checking and found out it is not as old as Arkansas City. It was started after the landrush as a center for keeping law and order.

Found a great blog on the city ..

http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/


Made me think a lot about what could be done here.
Visionaries built Oklahoma City into what it is today.
What will visionaries do here ?