Small Towns BIG Dilemmas

"Our town is shutting down one business at a time"...this is a common statement I hear when I step foot into

any small town in Missouri.

It is sad, but our small towns are struggling beyond belief and there is SO MANY factors that play.

Community members often tell me, we have called our representatives, we have tried to work with our community leaders, we have called the media, but there is just NO PLACE to turn. They are right, there is often no place to turn except to themselves, the problem often lays within! 

I work within our community to support our local community, and once you are on the inside the problems are often so obvious.

POWER TRIPS - This is the BIGGEST and SADDEST problem communities battle, there is often a political or organizational leader that gets on a power trip and can cause major issues within the community. Things that I have witnessed is control of money that don't belong to them, power of communication (not sharing the information that needs to be shared), dominating community meetings, and lying about the opposition. I often sit and wonder who is really in charge of the community, no political leader, no organizational member, and no religious leader should have control over anything. I do believe we are a FREE country and community should have power.

LACK OF COMMUNICATION - I am unsure if people just get busy, or if they just withhold information for their own good.  When one organization/person gets information on an event you would think there would be an "easy" button to share to the community.  However, there often is not and the event has minimal impact when the community has NO knowledge of it.

LACK OF RESOURCES - I use to say that it was not their fault, but in recent experiences I have decided the lack resources is often by choice.  Internet is EVERYWHERE, there is talented folks out there that are willing to help, but often get told no or shut down, because others that want to be in charge don't want them to help, or are afraid to ask.   I personally seen some "crazy" work from organizations, offered to help, but have been put down, because the person in charge wants all the glory.....My thought is take the glory I am here to help the community. 

REFUSING TO WORK TOGETHER - As many know I have landed myself in the middle of a HUGE mess in our local community.   Our biggest fight is people not wanting to work together...makes no sense to me, but it is what it is.   The easiest solution is, take the power away from those who refuse to work together and start from scratch.....what I see is it is often not the members of the organization that refuse to work together, it is typically one or two members that speak for all.  That is Sad, those people should be SHUT DOWN and have their power striped.  

I realize my words, my thoughts usually make little difference, people read what I say, then simply move on.  The ones that it hits home with often get mad, unfriend me, and say terrible awful things about me, but I am strong and there will be 10 good people to replace the 1 bad.  

I have thought long in hard how can I change this, what can I do to make this different, there is nothing.  It will take that community making the change, our community to make the change and change the delegation of power!

~Becky