Community Matters: Final thoughts on a faltering Beaver County
Over the past few months, writing this column has taken me on a journey that has deepened my understanding of life here in Beaver County and my role as a community leader.
In a series of articles that examined the role of the Board of Commissioners in perpetuating Beaver County’s ongoing reputation for faltering, I have embarked on a path that has been enlightening and affirming to me as a writer and a community leader. If you have been reading along, you are well aware that I have not shied away from saying the hard things out loud. To the contrary, I have focused on evidence-based conversations that demonstrate in tangible ways what leaders throughout our community have been saying quietly for many years.
By creating public space to speak truth, I have been privileged to have frank and informative conversations with many of Beaver County’s most influential leaders. These dialogues, akin to confidential whispers shared with a bartender or therapist, affirmed my conviction that there is a widespread and deep-seated frustration and yearning for change.
These leaders, often confined by the limitations of their own public obligations and entanglements with the county, viewed these articles as a much-needed opportunity to express their latent fears, hopes, and grievances.
As a way of wrapping up this series, I will outline thoughts that have occurred to me along the way. These are, in many instances, fragments of ideas that are calling for more careful consideration. Perhaps we will return to these themes in the coming months. For now, I will lay them out in germinal form, hoping that they spark in the reader ongoing reflection about what might yet need to change in order to move Beaver County to a place of widespread thriving.
Though many readers expressed surprise about the candidness of recent articles, almost no one was shocked by the broad contours of the content outlined. While new wrinkles and details may have been presented, few well-connected leaders in Beaver County were unaware of the issues about which I wrote. This is its own kind of interesting data point, revealing that we have, over time, become inured to our plight.
Citizens and leaders around Beaver County crave a platform where they can voice their collective sorrow and concerns. People are tired of being part of a system where their efforts seem futile or, worse, are thwarted. Void of constructive and transparent spaces for public lament, such frustration leads to disengagement, disempowerment, and unspoken anger.
While there is a growing desire among our leaders to confront what is holding us back as a county, the fear of repercussions continues to muzzle honest public discourse. This fear is not unfounded, as evidenced by the backlash that often follows candidness.
Although our collective frustration is palpable, it alone cannot drive change. If residents and leaders around Beaver County wish to produce lasting change, we must become more vocal, better organized, and singularly focused on a shared vision that transcends the complacency of the status quo.
Over the last couple of months, many of you have spoken to me about the need to address such issues at the ballot box. Undoubtedly, elections will and must become a critical part of addressing the ongoing faltering of Beaver County. However, this is not the primary agent to bring about the kind of change required to produce community thriving. Our most fundamental need for change is internal. We need to adapt our hearts and minds so that, as a public, we desire something different and see ourselves as a critical part of the solution.
Creating a different future for Beaver County will demand that we continue to work together to establish and strengthen cultural institutions and collaborations that echo an alternative vision for our communities. Ultimately, until we create, resource, and nurture networks of change and coalitions against the status quo, we will continue to be victimized by dysfunctional institutional political systems.
Speaking the truth is a commodity and increasingly I wish for it to be my primary currency as a leader. Particularly in this historical moment where political expedience is regularly elevated above the public good, I find myself more and more drawn to leaders who are willing to speak truth above all else.
The German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein often spoke of philosophy as a kind of therapy. As I move toward the close of another year as a public leader, I find myself increasingly drawn to thinking about leadership in a similar vein. We cannot fix the past, but we can learn from it.
Together, our shared charge is to move from frustrated lament to productive collaboration. Speaking truth in the public square will be increasingly important to that project. And, when met with courageous action, the consequences for entrenched institutional power will be profound and widespread.
Daniel Rossi-Keen, Ph.D., is the co-owner of eQuip Books, a community bookstore in Aliquippa and the executive director of RiverWise, a nonprofit working to grow community power and voice so that residents can exercise agency over Beaver County's future. Reach Daniel at daniel@getriverwise.com.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Community Matters: Final thoughts on a faltering Beaver County
