IWS

We celebrate our nation’s independence each year on July 4^th. Independence should be rooted in the DNA of every American. But I sometimes wonder if the independence gene is being slowly bred out of Americans and replaced with a dependence gene. Our growing dependence on government spending causes me to think this way. There’s something else that has me perplexed.

Since publication of my first novel about rural America, I’ve heard constant feedback about how much people miss the days when America was sprinkled with small autonomous towns. Countless numbers of people have shared with me a memory of their hometown when it had a business district that provided every necessary product and service. And all along I thought my hometown was special because even though small, we had a theatre, two banks, three supermarkets (grocery stores), two meat shops, three general merchandise stores, several stores selling appliances and furniture, a full service filling station on several corners, a clock shop, shoe repair, and the list could go on. Now we have empty buildings and a twenty five mile drive to the nearest Wal-Mart.

I’m not a Wal-Mart basher and I don’t blame Wal-Mart for the decay of America’s main street. My recollection is of people celebrating the opening of a Wal-Mart thirty miles away and then some becoming giddy when plans for the one twenty five miles away was announced. Nobody was forced to shop at Wal-Mart. In reality, the single biggest contributing factor in the decay of my hometown was the closing of several nearby factories. That was the beginning to the end of our autonomy. It didn’t have to be that way. Wal-Mart didn’t do it.

People didn’t stop working; they got jobs in other places. And guess what? That other place was near a Wal-Mart and other shopping venues, such as The Mall. Slowly, one by one, we handed our small town, our autonomy, our independence, over to the proverbial Wall Street.

Government spending is slowly crushing our national independence and the challenge to bring government spending under control is daunting. Liberals will cast conservatives as cold, calculating, and without feelings. Conservatives will cast liberals as socialist, communist, and immoral. Partisan bickering isn’t new and it has been going on since the founding fathers debated the writing of our constitution. One of the founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton was shot and killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr. The duel was to settle a political squabble. At least our elected officials aren’t walking out onto the lawn and gunning each other down. There’s probably a case to be made that duels should be reintroduced, at least to Congress.

There’s hope! The challenge to bring business back to town rekindle independent small town America is much simpler and there’s good economic sense to do so. Independent We Stand is an organization that fosters the support of locally owned business. Go to http://www.independentwestand.org and learn how you can find independent, locally owned small businesses near you and also provide reviews that will encourages others to patronize them. If you own a business then become a member of IWS; it’s free.

It’s my hope that the one good thing that will come from higher fuel costs is for the shopping to come home. Even if the initial cost of shopping local is higher, consider the civic and cultural advantage of sealing the economic borders and keeping the money home. The next time you’re checking out at one of those chain stores consider what they’ve done for the community. Do any of their owners sit on the school board, or city council, or run the Optimist basketball program? It’s almost impossible to avoid buying stuff made in China, but if you do, buy it from someone who will at least use some of the profit to light the ball field, coach the soccer team, and donate to the fireworks display on the 4^th.