Smart Communities

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Ten

2006 needs to be the year of working together. We have issues that can only be solved with a collective will and mission. Our goal for 2006 must be to create possibilities together. The evidence is overwhelming that when regions come together, organizations come together, or neighborhoods come together, then big things happen—not just one time but over and over. If you serve in an elected office—reach out. If you run a nonprofit organization—find a way to work with another organization. And if you are concerned about something or have an idea for change—find some people to talk with about it. Many of the challenges we face could be solved if we could work together.  As Wendell Berry once said, "One's real duty to the future is to do as you should do now. Make the best choices, do the best work, fulfill your obligations in the best way you can."

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Nine

Let's really solve some problems. Granted with have some big things on our plate—global competitiveness, youth underachievement, poverty—but we seem to either be afraid to tackle our challenges in a big way or are satisfied with incremental changes. It is time to invest right, work hard, and get some better results. As Albert Einstein said, "We cannot solve the problems that we have created with the same thinking that created them."

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Eight

Let's put the civil back in civilization in the New Year. Our intolerance to a wide variety of ideas seems to be growing exponentially. From shore to shore, we are divided at a time that we need to be together. We have always had differences of opinion in America, in fact, that is what has made our country strong and great. We need to rethink where we are and what we are becoming with factions and friction being the name of the game in politics and in our community lives. We can still talk about things and hammer out resolutions. In the political realm I would call this statesmanship—in the civic realm I would call this citizenship. As I tell communities, "The scarcest real estate in this town is common ground. Protect it before you lose it."

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Seven

Revive and support rural communities. We have gotten so caught up in bigger is better that we have forgotten that smaller places are hope, tranquility, and home for millions of Americans. We must lift up their attributes and minimize their shortcomings and invest in their futures so that the children of rural America have a safe and secure place to grow up and to come home to. As Langston Hughes wrote, "Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—."

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Six

Be sure that every child in your community has a caring adult in his or her life. It is the basic need and foundation that we all need. Even if the odds are against you on this, don't give up. Maybe it is through the schools, maybe it is by helping parents or guardians do a better job, or maybe it is through groups or communities of faith. Think hard about this and do something. As Franklin Roosevelt said, "The country needs, and unless I mistake its temper, the country demands, bold experimentation." This is the place to start.

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Five

Make quality daycare accessible to all in your community. It is critical to a child's later development and your community's future. Even if you do not have young children or grandchildren, it is critical that we plan and deliver quality care so that children from all economic and social backgrounds get the start they need. Investing in early childhood education is a win-win. Remember Arthur Ashe's challenge, "To achieve greatness, Start where you are, Use what you Got, Do what you can."

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Four

Find out about your affordable housing market. How much does it cost to rent a two-bedroom apartment in your community? What is the average wage? How much of a family’s monthly income must be spent on housing? Communities that continue to attract young people, retirees, and families must concentrate on the housing market and ways to make it more affordable. Get involved in your affordable housing efforts. As Maya Angelou reminded us, "To survive is important but to thrive is elegant." All families need to thrive.

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Three

Get involved in some organization outside of your work or immediate circle. What seems to be lacking in every community is a sustained citizen corps. People just like you are eager to make a difference, to join with people who want to make a difference, and to do something concrete. Where in your community can you find those people? It will improve your community, your civic pride, and our world — not a bad payoff. Marcel Proust once said, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." You and your community organizations need new eyes.

2006 Resolutions - Resolution Two

Reduce the number of hungry people in your community. With millions of Americans — young and old alike — going to bed without adequate food, we must act and act now. We are great at contributing around the holidays but what about the rest of the year? Find out what the situation is in your community, what efforts are currently being done, and what more can be done. As William Wordsworth once said, "The best part of a person's life — his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love."

Our Ten Smart Resolutions for the New Year

Over the next ten days — as we close out one year and enter the next — we want to focus on the ten resolutions that we must address in 2006. We have been at this work for a long time and the same things just keep coming up over and over every year. Let's make this the year that we will make progress on the big issues of the day. As Winston Churchill was credited with saying, "It's alright to be a late bloomer as long as you don’t miss the flower show." On many of our national issues we are late bloomers for sure but we can change that. These resolutions will not be fulfilled by doing the same things we have always done. Teaching will have to be different, media will have to be more focused, citizens will need to listen, learn and act, and parenting has to be reinvigorated and supported in new ways.

Resolution One: Keep kids in your community in school. More than a third of our nation's children are dropping out of high school. This is the minimum education for getting a decent start in life. Find out how your school system is doing really. How many children who begin in the ninth grade graduate four years later? That is the first step. Resolve to improve the graduation rate by 10 percent next year. Join with teachers, administrators, parents, students, community groups, business, and concerned citizens to figure out a strategy that makes staying in more interesting than dropping out. As Helen Keller reminded us, "Alone we can do so little together we can do so much." This resolution needs the whole community.