Are you welcome here?

Last Thursday I read with interest a story about a man that moved to a town and proceeded to wreck the town with his ‘nay saying’ attitude. The story went on to talk about squeaky wheels, broken wheels and every other week trips to ‘the mechanic shop’ to get things fixed.

 

I couldn’t help but wonder about the analogy and who might be considered to be the naysayer or even the broken or squeaky wheel.

 

It seemed to me to be a story about outsiders and insiders with the story going so far to infer that if you aren’t ‘from here’ your opinion isn’t really as valuable as it is for those who are ‘from here.’

 

I pondered long and hard about who belongs here, who can call Mini-Cassia home and whose opinion really matters.

 

The city of Burley was founded in 1905, and before it was founded there were very few white people anywhere in this area. Oakley would get the blue ribbon for having been established first, but even counting its advantage, if you go back three or four generations, everybody was from somewhere else. In that context, we’re all outsiders.

 

I got thinking about recent newcomers to our community and there are quite a few of them. We have new school teachers almost every year. Are they the squeaky wheels? If you go back fifteen years you’ll find a lot of people in very important positions around the community that weren’t from here.

 

Both of our hospitals have hired administrators from out of town. Many of our physicians, dentists and other medical personnel are ‘outsiders.’ Our new industry consists of people from all over the world. We have Pacific Ethanol, Dot Foods, Gossner’s Cheese, Packaging Specialties, Hy Line and Boyer, just to name a few.

 

Are they the outsiders spoken of? Are their wheels broken and in need of repair?

 

Maybe we should look a little closer at our government officials. Ah, that must be what this is all about. Our good Mayor Greenman has only lived in Burley for seven years, he must be who this is all about, but is it fair to call him a squeaky wheel?

 

A community is made up of people with different interests, educational levels and economic status. Our Mini-Cassia community is a mix of white people and Hispanics, and even among them there are differences.

 

I am confident that the thing that makes Mini-Cassia a wonderful place to live and work is that we welcome people who aren’t from here and don’t necessarily look or talk like we do. We welcome their ideas, their suggestions and even their criticism, when it is deserved. Imagine what our community would look like if the only ideas we would consider were those of the people that had lived here 50 years or more.

 

The idea that a different opinion is akin to a broken wheel that needs to be fixed is ridiculous. Some of the best inventions mankind has ever seen have come when someone was unwilling to accept the status quo, instead pressing forward with a new and different way of doing something.

 

Likewise, to make the assertion that anyone that thinks differently or speaks critically of ‘the popular way of thinking’ is a naysayer or the destroying angel trying to wreck the progress of the community is equally ridiculous.

 

Diverse ideas and critical thinking are important components in our ‘community stew’ that makes us what we are. I accept the notion that all negativity without being constructive could tear us apart, but so will blind acceptance of a few ‘elitists’ ideas.

 

Brian Williams, the popular MSNBC news anchor said it best; “Airing criticism of our government does not make us critics of our government.”

 

“The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.”