Moscow vision: alive and well

[Linda Pall <lpall@moscow.com>]

Dear Visionaries,

Thank you, Ken Medlin, for being the organizer of Saturday morning's
extremely interesting and enlightening discussion about the future of Moscow
and Latah County!

I share Shahab's delight in the mix of people who came for this conversation
and especially the ideas that were generated. The amazing part of this was
the appreciation of common themes, common goals and shared visions. We are
truly more alike than different even though we may come from very different
points of view and backgrounds.

One of the most moving parts of the entire morning were the comments in my
small group of Ken Clyde. Ken is an "nth" generation farmer in the Moscow
area and when the subject of what our greatest fears were came up, he said
it for all of us. His greatest fear was that as we grow and change we would
lose our heritage, lose our connection to the land, and in the case of every
farmer, lose their connection to family and continuity. 

I came away with a renewed charge to myself to make sure that our public
decisions (whether I'm one of the makers or one of the observers) are
grounded in an appreciation of the past, a practical and ethical view of the
present and a hopeful, visionary glimpse of our possible futures.

Ken and all those who attended: thank you for being part of a wonderful
discussion that I'm sure will be the first of many.

All the best,
Linda Pall