I know you may have missed the memo, but the city of Columbus, Mississippi — the Friendly City — is doing great things around town. Everything you may be complaining about is on the city’s radar, but it won’t get fixed overnight, so cut them some slack and give them a minute to put their house in order and get completely organized for the long haul.
Our community is destined for greatness if we can come together in one accord, but greatness isn’t built by a handful of people. It’s built by all of us. I see a lot of negative posts pointing out what’s wrong with City Hall, and I get it. Those conversations matter, but I’m curious: What solutions have you offered, individually or collectively, and are you willing to do your part to help bring about the necessary changes?
What skills, ideas, resources, meaningful dialogue or time can you contribute to make Columbus a better place to live, work and play for our children, families, businesses, schools and future generations?
Change doesn’t start only at City Hall or on Facebook and Snapchat. It starts with neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers, politicians reaching across the political divide and all of us in the Friendly City working together.
We must then decide to get involved and stop talking the talk and start walking the walk.
So instead of asking, “Why isn’t someone doing something?” let’s ask, “What can I do?”
Drop one idea in the comments that you believe would make our city a better place, and if you see someone with a great idea, don’t just like it on Facebook. Offer to help make it happen.
That’s how we build the beloved community we all want to live in.
I’ve been around a long time, and I know some people thrive on keeping turmoil alive just for the sake of it. So I expect the naysayers, nonbelievers, the “don’t get too involved” crowd and gossipers to show up in the comments, but that’s alright.
Larry Watson
Columbus
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
