For the last several years, I have had an unusual problem. Many people phoned me or stopped me on the street and asked me to write columns on various touchy, serious problems. Time and time again, I explained that I have just one shot a month — occasionally with a letter to the editor in between — and that my main task is to provoke fellow Creston Valley residents with better abilities, more knowledge, experience and finesse than mine to write, to join the battle.
As embarrassing as it became, I realized it is time to think if my answer and approach was the best. Guess what? A better answer lies right in front of me, to be more precise, in the statement at the end of my column, which says that thinking outside the box and engaging fellow citizens can bring simple solutions to complex problems.
I realized these past few weeks that I could write 104 columns in the Advance each and every year and still fall short. I know for a fact, at last, that not even dozens of extra writers will make a significant difference.
Something else is necessary. Instead of writing one column after another (what is like chasing away an individual mosquito that just bit me), we must adopt a Level 2 strategy: Bring the individual problems into the domain of 100 concerned citizens first, then 500, then thousands till that problem is solved, instead of putting it on the shelf, collecting dust.
Here is my Level 2 strategy: I aim for a series of public meetings, bringing together all concerned citizens (and I mean concerned), who want to leave a positive footprint that will resonate long after they are gone. We will meet, let’s say, in one of rec complex rooms, preferably before the end of this year. We will spend one or two hours bringing into the open one major thorny problem at one meeting (and touching one or two more in between). We will avoid politicos at this stage because all they want is to grease their pre-election wheels in advance. If they come, they will sit in the audience, not in front of the people.
We will outline the problem and find a workable solution, and if that solution is clear, bang on the doors of “powers” till that solution is implemented. If it takes longer or if we fail, we will fail with a clear conscience, knowing we did what we had to do.
With the power of the pen adding to the power of joined brains, votes and voices, we will not settle for, “That’s how things are.”
I am neither rich nor clever. All I have are time and a desire to expose problems, explain them, bring solutions into the open and push for remedy. I have time and am committed to it. If you share my vision, I am yours. I will continue using my brain and my time with an absolute assurance that if I were to live 1,000 years, there is still nothing better to do, anyway.
Loving our wives, and caring for our children, community, society, country and humanity are what most of us have in common, what empower us and bring us together. We are not for sale, and we don’t care about politicking. What matters the most is to do what is right.
I will find the best way to let fellow citizens know when and where to meet. I believe there is a new beginning that will not fade away, can’t be hijacked by insidious individuals or groups and will bring at least some good.
Could we meet before the end of this year?
Vladimir Certik believes that thinking outside the box and engaging fellow citizens may bring simple solutions to complex problems. The West Creston resident can be reached at 250-402-0055.