As I Was Saying...

By Sam Burnham
@C_SamBurnham

Lest everyone think I have forgotten our small town idea that we were discussing back before I went on the grand Virginia pilgrimage, I'd like to revisit that thought for a few. 

As many of you probably already know, I am a Disney fanatic. That's often thought to be an odd thing for a Southerner who leans heavy towards traditional conservatism but trust me, it works. I say that to transition into my thought for today. At the end of the movie "Tomorrowland, Frank Walker (George Clooney) and Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) are sending out the scouts to track down the right people to help make Tomorrowland the successful idea generator that it should be. Their targets were to be described as people who haven't given up, dreamers, and people who "feed the right wolf". Frank Walker also said that "It's not hard to knock down a big evil building that's telling us that the world is gonna end. What's hard is figuring out what to put in it's place." 

I think that is a great illustration that stands before us if this idea is to become a reality. These small towns need some dreamers. They need people who haven't given up. They need people who have unique ideas as I'm not sure that any one idea is going to revive every small town. Each town has its own answer. We have to have folks that can find each one. It has to be someone that loves that place and works hard to make it happen. 

But just as it was easy to destroy that big evil building, it's easy for me to identify that we live in a culture that favors big cities and big governments. The difference is that we can't knock that monster down until we determine what is going in its place. Once the small town option is real and alive, the big city beast will fall and those places will be just another place to live and work. People want this to happen. It must be done.