It's a New Year and Hopeful Signs Abound Amid the Confusion and Doubt

Help Achieve Progress by Posing Solutions to Problems Facing Us In 2006

January 1, 2006
By: Dave Rogers

I hear by the TV that some seers expect the world to come to an end by 2012.

It may have been the ubiquitous Nostradamus who set that date in his writings in medieval times.

If we keep that in mind, today's mundane issues of whetherto cut or raise taxes, inadequate health care for many people, rebuilding the economy of the Rust Belt, global poverty and disease, gambling excesses and the threat of China taking over everything don't seem so bad.

A good editorial writer will summarize the issues facing his or her community at the end of the year.

It's the traditional way, and I see my colleagues in the press and allied fields faithfully following the tradition.

Mike Seward, Bay Area Chamber of Commercepresident, also a pretty fair editor of the Bay Area Business Journal, nails the present need in the Dec. 28 edition: "Now . . . more than ever, business, government, labor and commuity leaders need to band together in efforts to successfully bring new jobs and income to the people of the Bay area." Seward's resolve for 2006: "Build this community to greater heights; together we can make the difference."

If the list of issues the community and its leaders need to resolve in the coming year seems daunting, compare this year with almost any in history.


You'll feel better.

Take, say the year Washington was obsessed with the impeachment of President Clinton. Or when the O.J. Simpson case or the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings were going on. Nobody thought about much else, let alone where their next dollar was coming from.

How about when Richard Nixon was crashing and burning and the political parties were at each other's throats. I guess they still are, only more vehemently.

Remember when interest rates were 18-20 percent? Those were real tough times.

During World War II we never knew from day to day whether our society, or a totalitarian one, would survive the cataclysmic conflict of world war.

We've gone through wars, depressions, shifts in the economy, moral crises, crime waves, Prohibition, changes in political leadership, etc. And, guess what? We're still here, and still thriving. Our little Bay City community that is.

It seems every 15-25 years something occurs in the stars and a new world is projected down upon us. We talk about it, shift gears and move on.

Once, at the turn of the 19th century into the 20th, our problem was a little thing like the end of the supply of timber in the seemingly endless Michigan woods. Was it the end of our world? As we knew it, yes. But we moved on into the age of the automobile. Now that world is fading and another direction is required. We'll find it, hopefully soon.

If all news is local, as Marshall McLuhan or some other communications guru pontificated, we need to focus on our little world spanning the Saginaw River in northeastern Michigan.

Today at the start of 2006 the issues include:

Reversing the trend of population loss;

Passing school facilities improvement bond to provide better environments for learning by children;

Tax sharing agreements to allow expansion of industrial parks, adding jobs;

A decision by the state on location of a new office building to revitalize a moribund area of the community;

Dealing with city sewer repairs, water and sewer rates and property taxes;

Controlling corruption caused by problem gambling and considering the longterm viability of the gambling culture;

Determining how to identify and select public officials and governmental leaders who are honest and have the public interest at heart;

Considering how excessive partisanship is affecting our local culture in which community cooperation for progress is vital;

What are the control factors for business greed and exploitation of the poor?

Water and air pollution; the adequacy of the water supply;

Educational achievement levels and the effect of poverty;

Decline of personal responsibility;

High health care costs;

New industry focus and attraction plans.

Condider this news site, MyBayCity.com, as a community network for progress. Help me suggest some solutions to these problems and expand this list by sending me an e-mail at Carraroe@aol.com.

I will summarize the responses in later columns. Thanks, and please work cooperatively for a year of progress in 2006 in the Bay City-Bay County community.###