From Our Founder

Anxious.  That’s the word I use to describe the mood in and about not only our region, but our country.  With the anniversary of 9/11 upon us, whether it’s homeland security, our global war on terror, the price of gasoline, the upcoming elections, local social and economic initiatives, the stability of the economy, drugs and crime in our community, immigration policy, or the state of health care we have a host of unresolved issues looming over us which directly affect our daily lives.

Americans for the most part are a hopeful, energetic lot which are excited by novelty and new, but appreciate semblance of order and stability.  More than anything we like to feel safe and secure knowing that at the end of the day everything is going to be alright – no matter how much chaos a given day might bring.  We crave a deep breath every now and then.

But since 9/11 five long years ago we’ve been forced to hold our breath waiting for the next turn of events to wreak havoc in our lives.  This phenomenon of “not knowing” last visited us as we fought our way through WWII.  Perhaps this is why the pundits are working to convince us that what we are presently confronting is by definition WWIII.

I am not convinced that this is true.  Frankly, I think we’re in the midst of the “great in-between” and what we’re really experiencing is the passing of the torch from one generation to the next.  One generation is heralding to the traditional while the other is embracing new-age.  While one generation worries about retirement and the challenges of graying; the other craves information, new horizons, opportunity and innovation.  In essence, we’re struggling to reconcile combating interests.  Rich and poor, analog and digital, petroleum and electricity, city or rural, work or leisure, God or man.  Things are not simple anymore and we’re increasingly coming to understand that the “good old days when the grass was greener and the air was cleaner” was largely a world which existed in our minds and on television.

Our friends in the mass media have embraced the notion that we lost our innocence on 9/11, but that too is a fiction.  When you can sell that bill of goods to a veteran of WWII, or Korea, or Viet Nam, or Desert Storm I might believe you.  America may have re-awakened on 9/11, but as surely as it did, five years hence it has slumbered off.  My sense is that this is largely due to the fact that modern conflict is as much perception as it is reality and we’re pretty much burned out by the hype and the endless analysis by of our “talking heads” on T.V..

What I think we are experiencing is the effects of a Renaissance, not WWIII.  We are experiencing the effects of becoming digital.  This transformation began when the first microcomputers landed in our homes and on our desks.  As microchips became smaller, more complex, and more powerful; so too did our world.  The Internet, high definition television, streaming media on iPods, wireless telecommunications… have transformed the world we live in creating a divide between the graying decision-makers and the new generations who will one day be forced to deal with what remains.

The question at this point is what side of the divide are you on and who you believe.  As our forefathers who sacrificed everything that we might live free, we must first and foremost believe in ourselves and our personal capacity to rise to any challenge we may confront.  They would expect no less from us.