Get Involved — By Tommy Purser

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where Jeff Davis County has been and what direction it will take in the future.
It’s something I’ve thought of a lot over the past five decades — since 1973 when I first put down roots in these parts. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, rise and fall, succeed and fail, sit high atop the mountain top and fail deep below in an abyss of failure.
My own fortunes have risen and fallen over time, as has been the case with most of us, I guess. Good times and bad times. History repeats itself in seemingly every arena.
Almost a quarter of a century ago, I sat down at a keyboard and typed out the following column. It rings a familiar bell, one I’ve been ringing again and again and again. Like I said, history repeats itself so, with that thought, I ring it one more time with that old column —
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I had the honor of traveling to Atlanta last week to meet with some state officials along with a contingent of folks from Hazlehurst seeking to bring jobs and economic prosperity to our community.
We met in a conference room at the Legislative Office Building across the street from the State Capitol. During the meeting, I took a look around the room at the people gathered there and realized that many, if not most, of those people were still in high school when I moved to Jeff Davis County almost 30 years ago. Some were not yet in high school.
It made me feel a bit old. But not for long. You’re as young as you feel, as the saying goes, and I can assure you that I feel much younger than my 55 years.
Thank goodness.
I remember a number of years ago challenging a young, local man to get involved in our community
which, at that time, needed our bright, young men and women to step forward and become a part of the driving forces that helped guide Hazlehurst and Jeff Davis County into the future.
We didn’t need our bright leaders of the future to stand back and wonder about why things were the way they are. We needed people to step in and work to make things the way they should be.
He accepted that challenge, and soon took a tentative step into the world of movers and shakers in Jeff Davis County. Nothing much came of it – initially, but I knew that, given time, he and others of his ilk would realize that they had the potential to lead our community to better things.
Too often, the really capable young people in our midst lack the confidence …. and the encouragement … to step forward to “learn the ropes” so they, eventually, can step to the plate on the behalf of all the people in our community.
I felt good about last week as I watched bright young (remembering, of course, that “young” is a
relative term) men step to the plate and go to bat for our community and everyone who lives in it. Time will tell if their efforts will produce results.
But I can assure you that all of us should be proud of their efforts.
I was 25 years old when I came to this community three decades ago, and was immediately thrown into the arena of leadership —- ill prepared and naive but in the arena nonetheless. I learned a lot and learned it in a hurry.
We need other young men and women to step forward and learn. Learn now how to lead us into our futures. We can’t afford to wait.
Get involved.