Lines of optimism

There is a fine line between naivety and optimism.

Let’s walk the line.

The line walked here is that we have more reasons to be optimistic about the future of the Fort Smith region than not.

We have a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith — in the toddler stage of its ascendancy — that will within the next 10 years be one of the top five Arkansas universities in terms of academic offerings, student success, the mix of technology and education, ongoing support of regional business and industry, international studies and interactions with socio-economic issues that have yet to arise. No later than 2020, more than 10,000 students will be enrolled at UAFS, and my brand of optimism suggests the activities and expectations of those students will embolden the youthful and progressive spirit within the soul of this region.

On the line of optimism is the recent formation of the Regional Intermodal Transportation Authority. This is really boring economic development stuff, but please know that a region able to help businesses dramatically lower shipping costs and/or make their shipping more efficient is a region that sees its job base grow and diversify.

And there is the fact that the Fort Smith region is in a relatively good location within the U.S. That may sound like chamberspeak, but geography is geography. The folks at Mars Petcare, Mitsubishi both said their decision to locate in the area was based on being central to vendors and consumers.

We might also be optimistic (cautiously, though) about this positive chatter between Sebastian County and the city of Fort Smith about making wiser use of collective resources in the effort to invest in new facilities at Ben Geren Regional Park.

We have good people. Hard-working folks. Fair-minded friends and neighbors who usually give more than they take. Sure, we still have our share of folks who continue to look askance at blacks, them Mexicans, women in positions of power, them homosexuals and folks with big dreams about our collective future.

Other reasons to be optimistic include the U.S. Marshals Museum and a growing awareness that we need to improve the quality of the legislative delegation we send to Little Rock.

In the course of this optimistic consideration, a friend forwarded information about an ongoing study to evaluate the soul of a community. Gallup (the polling group) and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation interviewed more than 28,000 people in 26 communities to determine what “draws people to a community — and what makes them want to put down roots and build a life.”

What did the effort discover? “An area’s physical beauty, opportunities for socializing and its openness to all people provide the emotional glue that keeps residents happily entrenched. … Access to quality education — whether at the elementary, secondary or college level — was also an important factor.”

And then out popped this note in the Gallup/Knight report: “In a globalized world, where cities are competing for innovative and productive workers, leaders need to find ways to attract and keep talent. Prosperity depends on it.”

Kind Reader is respectfully asked to back up and read again the quote. If you run across a more succinct, yet powerfully insightful sentence that should best guide all our civic considerations and actions, please lemme know.

This optimism and the nature of our regional soul brings us to Paul Harvel and gaseous bodies.

Harvel, president of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, opened the press conference announcing Mitsubishi’s decision to build a $100 million manufacturing plant at Fort Chaffee by noting there were “no stars at the table.” Harvel, who became chamber president in May, emphasized that it took a team effort among private and governmental entities at the city, county and state level to bring Mitsubishi and its 400 jobs to the area. Harvel’s point is that our regional successes require a large group of people (mass) working hard (energy) toward the same goal.

On the History Channel was a show about huge gaseous bodies that lack the energy and mass to become a star. Our nearest star, the Sun, has enough mass to cause hydrogen to fuse into helium, thus creating heat/energy. But not these star-wannabes known by astronomers as “brown dwarfs.”

OK, so we may not have stars in our community, but will our community be a star? Will we have enough mass and energy to convert our potential and our optimism into a star that attracts creative companies and entrepreneurial minds?

Or will we fail to reach conversion, and instead float through time as a status quo “brown dwarf” community that fails to offer the comfort of heat and light and attracts nothing but dust?

Maybe the answer to our conversion abilities is found in that line from Gallup/Knight about how “leaders need to find ways to attract and keep talent.” Except in our case we need to attract and keep talented leaders so we may consistently and effectively shine.

There is a fine line between naivety and optimism.

Let’s walk the line.