To the editor,
As a newcomer to Jefferson, I watched and listened with fascination during the City Council meetings over the past six months as the citizens of Jefferson vigorously debated the separately proposed Kading Housing Project (which is on hold) and the KCG Housing Project (which will move forward).
I felt honored to witness the difficult, sometimes messy, and frequently heated democratic process working, in my opinion, exactly as it should in the conversations that occurred at the Council meetings among and between the Council members, among and between Council members and citizens and among and between the citizens themselves. After all, isn’t democracy truly about making a deep commitment to the on-going process of conversation to solve problems, to make decisions, and to seek creative solutions to create a brighter future for our community?
As a newcomer to Jefferson, I felt honored to witness the democratic process and commitment to conversation practiced in a more personal and productive way by the friends and neighbors living in our community than I have felt ever before in my life living in larger cities. When I witnessed the deep research that many citizens did before presenting their ideas, for or against these projects, I felt pride in being a citizen of Jefferson and Greene County.
Whether a citizen spoke for or against these projects, what shone through clearly to me, was the passion and deep love each person experiences in living in our community. Some citizens show this love by seeking to protect their community from projects they think would be harmful. Some citizens show this love by advocating in favor of projects they think would create a brighter future for all of us. But, what was clear to me is that, without any doubt, all citizens spoke out of love for their community.
Even more to the point, isn’t an even deeper truth that all of us need the voices that seek to conserve and protect as fully as we need the voices that seek productive changes? Isn’t an even deeper truth that each of us needs to discern with wisdom what is well worth conserving and protecting and what is better to let go of and seek to improve and change? Isn’t an even deeper truth that it is only through our conversations that we can discover greater common ground on all the challenges and opportunities that face our community?
As I left the final Council meeting in which, by a super majority vote, the Council approved the zoning change that will allow KCG to build their apartments, a fellow citizen said to me, “Well, we lost that one!” I said, “Yes, but we still have hope that building these apartments will end up being a positive addition to our community.”
My fellow citizen said, “Yeah, we still have hope.”
To me, our hope is truly not in whether building these apartments will prove to be a good or bad decision (though making good decisions matters greatly). We won’t know that for many years.
Instead, our hope is in the vitality and vigor of the people who live in our community. Our hope is in the love, passion and willingness of all of us to explore and decide together as best as we can what is worth conserving and what needs improving.
If we all keep these hopes and commitments alive and well, I think we’ll do ok. Who knows, we may even thrive!
Bryan Helmus, Jefferson
