RSVP preached resilience in the face of change to Riley and the Pols

03 Apr RSVP preached resilience in the face of change to Riley and the Pols

(Part of "Telluride Inside…and Out's" ongoing support of The New Community Coalition and related change agents, such as the Regional Sustainability Visioning Project, is to keep the post-meeting dialogue going. County commissioner/poet Art Goodtimes writes "Razz-a-ma-tazz: a more-or-less monthly on-line column for TIO."
Below he comments on the March 18 RSVP meeting.)

by Art Goodtimes

Myles Rademan — with his future planner’s bag of tricks & treats, funny New Yorker cartoons and retro-Crested Butte memorabilia snaps — played hotshot scattergun foil to JoDee Powers' focus on drum empowerments and deep insights, touching mind and body. Two good speakers, both motivational and funny. And they played to a room full of local government leaders and the CEO of the ski company, all wrestling with RSVP’s paradoxical message – “Many things will have to change for the town to stay the same.” Hearing about resilience and the entrepreneurial spirit, not mere sustainability and the status quo.

“Don’t believe everything you believe,” suggested Radical Man, quoting a culling slide show wisdom from diverse sources (mostly men) – Loudon Wainright, Tom Friedman, Henry Ford. “Familiarity breeds invisibility.”

And sure enough, the recent international market collapse following lax regulatory enforcement only underscores how easily we as citizens can be seduced into belief – without reflection or rigorous debate. A resilient community will weather the storms. So how to get there?

“Don’t follow leaders and watch your parking meters.” Dylan still applies. The challenge of collapse is the opportunity to re-create. And so, the RSVP message, if Telluride were to heed their invited harbingers of change, was the need to develop public and private leadership. Most auspiciously working together. Perhaps by creating local & regional tables of trust where we might begin crafting solutions unique to our situation and imported from the best examples around the world.

If economists can appropriate globalism and make it a bad word, it’s time for the community leaders to take back the concept of an international perspective and build on each others’ models from around the world. Because, if the truth be told, “even Americans can no longer afford to live like Americans.”