Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406270123
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By HARRY NICKENS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Issue after issue begs for debate and resolution. What will be the valley's response? One fact emerges with stark reality: The future of Roanoke Valley communities is inextricably interlocked.
At a time when so many of society's values are shaped and revised by the marketplace, the influence of elected and civic leaders must grow outward from a core of personal integrity rooted in humane goals. Are elected and appointed leaders more concerned with a personal agenda or ``landing'' a big industry than with dealing with the preservation of communities or such basic issues as the health of infants and quality of life for senior adults?
The single greatest danger confronting Roanoke Valley communities is that in attempting to respond to the more glamorous issues of creating jobs, adding highways or increasing funding for cultural activities, leaders may be distracted from the transcendent, integrative goal of creating a positive climate in which to live, work and play.
Can a community prosper without growth? There are those residents who have fled growth, moving to valley communities to avoid the likes of Greenville, Charlotte or Northern Virginia. ``No growth'' is in fact the posture of many.
Others, including many business leaders, retailers and real-estate professionals, cringe at that thought. Without growth, they contend, we cannot solve local economic problems that fuel many of our social ills. Maintaining the status quo is indeed the forerunner of decline. So frantically, we try to ``grow our way out of problems.''
Is there an alternative to growth that avoids decline? Sustainable economic development, achieved not at the expense of Roanoke Valley communities but as the result of two salable products - our people and our geography - may be the answer and should be our focus as we approach the 21st century.
Growth, generally defined as the expansion in the size of a community, is viewed as a way to pay for solutions to existing problems. Time after time, the perils of our valley are afforded priority coverage through the media. Would any outside business want to invest in an area where the focus appears to be on ``what's wrong?'' Outsiders are seldom inclined to invest in correcting someone else's problems.
Sustainable economic development in valley communities must focus on our citizens, both individual and corporate, our geographic natural beauty, and our strategic location in the world. To sustain our economy we must not allow our salable resources - forested ridgelines, clean air, citizens, quality of life - to be depleted.
We must provide for the equitable development of communities so that adverse impacts are not concentrated. We must provide sound educational opportunities for future generations, for the depletion of our greatest resource - our young people - will surely lead to decline. And we must ensure that we do not surpass the environmental threshold, the point past which we cannot allow the degradation of our surroundings, for sustaining our local ecosystem.
Communities can no longer count on the cement - home, school, church - that once held us together. People today appear scattered in a myriad of unrelated neighborhoods, sure of individual special desires and interest, but ignorant of shared purpose and ideals.
Building of communities must begin with individuals and grow outward. Families must be taught to assume more responsibility. When families are dysfunctional, institutions within the communities must be prepared to intervene. Too much of society is affected by growing social and political polarization.
In the valley that is emerging, the challenge will be to overcome social and political separation that restrict the quality of our communities and diminish the prospect of sustainable economic development.
Leaders must put forth the vision necessary to transcend governmental boundaries and to build effective networks of collaboration. Who will step forward and lead?
Being a leader is an unenviable calling. It appears glamorous and glorious to many, but may be lonely and thankless. Servant leaders (many of whom in the valley have recently passed), those whose goals are focused not on personal or political gain but rather on helping, must again emerge if our communities are to find a renewed spirit. The perils of leadership are ever-present and the rewards fleeting.
Plain and ordinary, highly motivated people, who want to have an impact on their communities, must step forward. City halls and county seats cannot solve the ills of valley communities. Only through individual responsibility to self, family, neighbor and community can we emerge positively from the morass of social ills and polarization confronting us today.
At the valley's best, its communities should bring together the visions and experiences of all its parts to create something greater than the sum. We should, as the greater community, offer the prospect that personal values will be clarified and that governmental competence and confidence will be deepened and renewed. Citizens must be prepared, and afforded the opportunities, to participate more effectively in civic and political life.
In the end, the Roanoke Valley must be defined not only as a region, but also as a climate to be created.
Harry Nickens, president of the College of Health Sciences in Roanoke, is a member of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.
by CNB