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Change - - Is Forever |
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John S. Bis A new year and a coming new administration in Washington. The new talk is about change. But how new is this focus for change? I had a colleague, a futurist, who died this past spring. Magda McHale spent most of her professional career examining, teaching and writing about change; about trends in society and technology. She and I frequently discussed how much of today’s reality had been projected thirty or more years ago. She often wondered why people pay so little attention to trends that portend change and, as a result, seem so unprepared when it arrives. If she had been alive during the final days of this presidential election campaign she might have cheered president-elect Obama’s call for "change". But long before his campaign mantra, I saw a billboard popularizing an awareness of change. That message about change came from the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2004, traveling along the 190 interstate north of Niagara Falls, I noticed a recruitment billboard for the Corps. It had a simple message. It pictured a Marine in dress blues and contained only the phrase, "The change . . . is forever". Obviously this was a reference to September 11, 2001. But the message was clear. Change had occurred, is occurring and has given us a different world. Western New York is obviously a part of this different world. It too is being impacted by change, and I don’t just mean border security or the threat of terrorism. The Town of Porter provides a good example. The town has spent much recent effort updating its planning documents. It is attempting to cope with change. But local land use planning may not be enough. Porter is a quiet place in the northwest corner of New York. It is a farm and orchard land that watches the lower end of the Niagara River empty into Lake Ontario. It faces Canadian neighbors across that river and extends east along that lake for ten miles or so. A quiet place, but these west and north edges are in fact, international borders. Meanwhile, to the south and east the town melds unnoticed into farm county. But Porter’s farm country has noticed changes. Farmers speak out about competition from China and other lands. They cannot compete with apple juice and other products crossing the international borders. And what can a local farmer do against less expensive foreign labor? That is the reality of their border security threat. Religious fanatics have demonstrated efforts to destroy our democratic way of life. And these actions have resulted in noticeable changes. Residents view daily flights by Homeland Security helicopters along Porter’s shores, and frequently see cars of Immigration and Border Police parked at local restaurants. Not as easily noticed are other global changes which have significant local impacts. Changes in food production, ease in global transportation, growth in international labor markets, rapid changes in communication technologies, and continuing changes in our understanding of human life and health. These changes, more so than the threat of terrorism, are dramatically impacting the way we live and how we work. So the residents of the Town of Porter, and all of us, we need to think anew about tomorrow. Thinking locally is not enough. Cookie-cutter ideas will no longer do. Ask the U.S. Marines. <jsb> [Published in the Lewiston-Porter Sentinel, January, 2009]
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