In my humble opinion, one of the main reasons we're not moving forward (very quickly) can be illustrated by a (slightly modified) story I once heard:
A boy went out clam digging. He dug for hours, putting each clam carefully in his pail. Oh his arm ached from all the clams that he had found and dropped into the bucket. He decided he must have enough and so he hurried home to give them to his grandfather.
"Look grandpa," he said. "Look at all the clams I found. I must have a thousand of them."
Grandpa leaned way over and looked into the pail and saw that the bottom was barely covered; there might have been only a half dozen instead of the anticipated thousands.
"Oh no!" grandpa replied, "You were picking up Grand Forks clams."
His grandson asked, "What do you mean, Grandpa?" as he looked horrified into the almost empty pail.
Grandpa said, "Son, come here and sit down. You see, Grand Forks clams don't like to see anyone get ahead. They continually pull down the ones that are on the top so they all stay at the bottom."
It seems every time someone in Grand Forks comes up with an "idea"—be it good or not—our "vocal" community shows up at council with the intention to pull that idea down. Historically some of these ideas have included purchasing Golden Heights, air boats, new garbage system, an artisan faire, medical marijuana, fall fair grounds, the lights on the alternative "transit" system (trail) and of course today... the water meters.
I would like to see members of our "vocal" community get behind something and show support for it instead of always put it down.
For once can we all decide to look at the cup as half full instead of half empty. I challenge everyone, next time you hear of something happening, instead of looking for the negatives, find the positives in the idea. Let's get something done!
Lorraine H. Dick, Grand Forks