Letter to the Editor: Response to He’s not from here

By Carl Kem Columbia Utah

Dear Editor,
Mr. Sansevero has hit the subject quite accurately. “He’s not from around here” is something you’ll find in nearly any small town. It’s endemic for many small towns. Because of your locations you had to become self-serving. You had no choice. And that’s a problem many small towns face now. Kinda. They try to be self-subsisting, but in this day and age that’s nearly impossible. Times have changed, needs and demands have changed as well.
And that’s a downfall for the small towns. I met a few elderly that hate the new people moving in. “Damn them! They want change and we don’t! We don’t want any change! We want it like it was when we were kids,” is the common idea. Well, if that’s what they want, fine. Let’s rip the asphalt up, yank out the electric and phone lines, pull the water and sewer and gas lines out as well. If they want water, go to the corner to the community spigot. Ya gotta use the restroom? Outhouse, baby! It works!
Now you have it like it was when you were kids. No gas lines or electricity for your stoves. Wood or coal. Dirt roads that get gnarly with mud and yuck when it rains. Say, that’s the part of your youth you strangely don’t remember unless you’re reminiscing on how hard you had it as kids…strange how that happens, isn’t it?
But you had change. You didn’t see it like you do now, because you were young and you were part of it. You worked with the changes far better then. Everyone benefitted from change.
When people talk of change, it’s not the fear of change that’s the issue but fear of the unknown. They don’t know if it’s gonna be good or bad, and it scares them. We’ve seen it in many places- businesses come and businesses go. Nothing lasts, and it hurts the community in the end and they fear that happening again.
The message I’m trying to share is if you want a better life you have to reach out and grab opportunity. Don’t wait for it! And that means accepting change. Don’t fear change- grab it, nurture it, control it. Do not become a victim of the change that is forced upon you. Instead, foster its growth, control it long before it controls you. Make it your tool instead of you becoming its slave.
Change is gonna happen. You can’t stop it. All small towns need to grow. If they don’t grow they begin to stagnate and after a while start dying off. Look at East Carbon City and Sunnyside. We’re forced to change and had to merge and become one because for so long we couldn’t accept change within the community. We didn’t control it, and look at how it has now forced itself onto us. Some of you don’t have that luxury. What is Emery or Ferron gonna do? What about Castle Dale and Orangeville? That power plant won’t be there forever, you know. Don’t wait until they start a permanent shutdown before you start looking for options.
Where were you 50 years ago? Where do you wanna be 50 years from now? Change is coming. If you don’t start working on controlling it now, you’re not gonna like it when it gets here.