Obama’s Town Hall Meeting
February 9, 2009 by Julia King · 1 Comment
I wasn’t there in person this time when President Obama came to town, but I was talking to a friend on her cell phone as she watched Air Force One land at the South Bend Regional Airport… AND I did get to watch on TV while a couple of my neighbors shook his hand. So, like millions of others, I heard the president’s words from the comfort of my living room instead of from the bleachers in the Concord High School gymnasium.
In short, Obama delivered. He used the office of the presidency to highlight our community as an example of a place that especially needs help, but also as an example of a place that needs to be willing to see this hardship as an opportunity. He reminded us all what this stimulus package is really about. It’s about moving forward with a new, greener and more socially equitable economy. He stressed the fact that when something is already in disrepair (like our local and national economy), that’s the best time to make important shifts, to rebuild better and smarter.
The roughly 22 percent of Americans who stood by George W. Bush until the end showed us that no matter what, some people will stand their ground. Let them stand. The rest of us better get moving…
Obama Puts Elkhart County in Economic Spotlight
February 8, 2009 by Julia King · 9 Comments
When President Barack Obama comes to Elkhart tomorrow (Monday, Feb. 9), he will presumably hear not only from the many average citizens who stood in line for hours to get tickets, but also from 3rd District Rep. (Republican) Mark Souder (my representative) and 2nd District Rep. (Democrat) Joe Donnelly (the neighboring district’s representative). The two northern Indiana lawmakers have joined forces to protect the flailing (failing) recreational vehicle industry, long a staple of the local economy.
As representatives of a hurting community, Donnelly and Souder are doing something right. They are trying to help their ailing constituents. So, too, is Obama – who recognized Elkhart County as a place that truly needs some tender loving care (also known as “jobs”).
I don’t yet know what Obama plans to say, but I hope it’s different from what Souder and Donnelly are saying. Our northern Indiana guys are looking to boost demand for RVs by requesting that Troubled Assets Relief Program (or TARP) funds be available for loans for RVs (these are funds that were initially established for the housing crisis).
Am I a spoilsport if I say I’m less-than-inspired? Getting people to buy recreational vehicles with stimulus money seems about as creative and forward-thinking as investing in home coal chutes. Maybe there’s more to the plan, but if there is, the details aren’t easy to come by.
Once upon a time a recreational vehicle was a brilliant idea (For real. It was.). But that was before we knew about global warming and before we sampled life with gas prices approaching $5 a gallon. Even if an RV niche can survive, it will have to be much (MUCH) smaller, meaning it cannot be expected to anchor our local economy.
Now, it would be different if Donnelly and Souder were pushing for a complete overhaul of the industry, looking to run RVs on vegetable oil, or hydrogen, or outfit every new RV with solar panels or portable windmills (Okay, I don’t know what I’m talking about here. I’m just throwing ideas out; you get the general picture.). But they aren’t. They’re thinking small when it’s time to think big.
The point is that the stimulus money should be used for the future good of our community – and the country as a whole. As sad and frustrating and scary as it is, not every industry will make it to the other side of this economic crisis. And not every industry should.
Northern Indiana desperately needs jobs, jobs that support families and send kids to college — and jobs that tread lightly on our water and our air and our land. The RV industry is not necessarily that industry. It might be, with massive adjustments. But it might not be.
So, when Obama is here, I hope he listens carefully. I hope he hears all the voices and all the possibilities that exist here. And most important, I hope he brings with him fresh ideas for our hurting home. We want to work. We want to grow. But to do that we need an economy that will survive for the long haul, not one that will limp along temporarily before finally tripping over itself and landing on its face.
