Communities are fragile. They are interdependent on so many disparate pieces as to be capable of being degraded quickly. Maybe we can learn something from this morning's General Motors announcement concerning Janesville.
General Motors is closing the Janesville GM plant and that will put something in the range of 2,600 to 2,800 employees out of work. This could happen as late as 2010 or as soon as next week, dependent only upon the marketplace. There have already been over 2,000 jobs lost simply as the result of GM's slowdown in production. This announcement will, unfortunately, cause many, many more announcements over the next months.
The economy of South Central Wisconsin is at risk. Chrysler operates a similar facility in Belvidere, IL and many Wisconsinites work at that facility, too.
Communities either have or do not have spirit and vitality about them. Those that do not seem to fit into one or the other categories are simply in transit from one to the other. There can be no indefinite in-between in the life of communities.
Communities can move all too quickly from vitality to despair. The trip back to vitality from despair takes much longer...often several decades if that quickly.
Germantown is not immune. No matter that it was determined one of the thirty best places to live. That distinction is solely in the eye of the beholder. If the spirit of a community is broken, you can see that by simply driving through. And, driving through is what prospective new inhabitants and prospective new employers do in communities without vitality.
I had the opportunity to drive into Beloit several weeks ago. It had been years since I drove into Beloit; it was always easier and, frankly, more pleasant to drive around Beloit. But this time, I had to go to the heart of the community...and I was amazed at what I saw and what I felt. Beloit had re-captured the spirit that had eluded it most of my adult lifetime, and it was palpable. It was present where ever I looked. It was present in the lively steps of its citizens. It was present in the well-kept boulevards, and in the pride taken by its residents in their homes.
If you can imagine a brightly colored balloon that is full of air, and then picture that same balloon as it has lost some of its air pressure, that might be the exercise we need to take daily as we think about our own community. Those full, bright balloons exude their own sense of well-being. And the half-full balloons send out their message, as well.
I hope that Germantown hasn't started losing air. If I missed it and the air is already beginning to leave our balloon, then I hope we'll realize that something needs to change so that we can restore our fullness and brightness before we've lost too much air pressure.
It is not possible to touch politics, but it is possible to sense ebbs and flows caused by changing political scenes. It is the addition or subtraction of spirit. It is the spirit of the community that determines its future. Communities with spirit just seem to overcome the obstacles put in their way, while those that lose their spirit go into nearly perpetual decline.
I hope that our spirit isn't being eroded with the political in-fighting that seems to be flourishing today.
