| mySPIN |
 You Can't Just Sit There
by Tom Campbell
November 21, 2006
Larry had always dreamed of flying. Not in an airplane, mind you, but of personally soaring high above the rooftops. One day, when Larry was sitting in his back yard in his Aluminum folding lawn chair, he tied 30 helium-filled balloons to his chair. On one leg he had taped a bag full of sandwiches. On another, a six-pack of beer. In his lap, he had a CB radio, and in the crook of his arm he held a BB rifle, brought along to shoot holes in the balloons, in hopes of landing safely.
When Larry soared to 11,000 feet the jetliners started radioing Los Angeles International Airport that a strange airborne device was in their landing pattern. Immediately the media was alerted and the event became a sensation. Upon landing, the reporters couldn’t wait to get to Larry. The first question they all asked was “Why?”
Larry didn’t pause in responding. “You can’t just sit there,” he said.
North Carolina has been blessed to have had many visionaries through the years; men and women who had big dreams about what this state could become. Perhaps the most famous were the two Ohio brothers who also had dreams of flying. Others created our public schools and universities, built roads and bridges and hospitals, and designed infrastructure to make life in this state worth living. In this season of Thanksgiving we need to pause and give thanks to them all.
But we also must ask where the dreamers of this generation are? What are their dreams for what our state can become? North Carolina is at a crossroads, growing rapidly in some sections while losing population in other areas. We have great wealth but also great poverty. There are problems aplenty with current in education, health care, transportation, and most every sector you can cite.
We need to hear from the dreamers. We long to learn of their visions of what this state should be when it grows up. We have a storied past. What is our future story? Without a vision we are much like old Larry, sitting in our backyards in our lawn chairs. And as Larry so eloquently said, we can’t just sit there. We need to dream of soaring. |
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