Choose

By Mike Thornburg
The Jetmore Republican

"Many receive advice...only the wise profit from it."

Sometimes I wonder what the heck we are all thinking. I don't write this column to upset people, but I do sometimes try to offer a reasonable view to consequences for our actions.

It is pretty darn comforting to know that if I have a grocery need in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday that I can run around the corner to our amply stocked, modernized grocery store. The same store that supports a majority of our organizations and activities throughout the Hodgeman County community. Yet it never fails to astound me in regard to the number of people from this community that only use that store for filler items or when it suits their immediate needs.

Many other businesses around this community continue to suffer as well as Hodgeman County residents continue to send their dollars out of county in search of a bigger or better deal.

When are we gonna come to our senses and realize that each and everyone of us can make a difference? Even a teen can explain the consequences of an irrational act of vandalism to another youth to avoid damaging this community for mere moments of destructive entertainment. Only you can decide that it might be best if you spent your grocery or hardware dollars at home instead allowing those dollars to support someone else's community.

Being of a solid procrastanistic nature, I was in desperate need of tires for the front of my vehicle...the blow-out that I had on HWY 156 was a clear indication of that fact. A friend stopped to help me along the roadside and informed me that he could get me new tires for a real good price...out of town of course. Well, choosing to support our community and its businesses is a high priority of mine, so I chose to purchase the tires locally...and for as good a price as I could have gotten anywhere else.

The next time you are in the checkout line at that out of county grocery store...take a moment to reflect upon the local business that will never see your dollar...that same business that supports your schools and organizations with donations, provides a needed service for the community, and does its best to provide to you quality products for the best rate they can afford to offer.

All that we CHOOSE to do can affect so much more than ourselves and it is time that we CHOOSE to protect that which is ours...that which keeps the our life's blood flowing. CHOOSE to support your local businesses...CHOOSE to protect your local businesses...and CHOOSE to keep a thriving community that we can be proud to call our home.

Mike is the Editor of the Jetmore Republican
He wrote this editorial February 14, 2007