Narrowing The Focus — By John Reed

Narrowing The Focus
Last week’s front page article honoring yet another home town athlete got me thinking. The piece listed lots of sports accomplishments as well as sports-related career milestones. Missing was any mention of other achievements, such as eight years in band, representing the school in honor bands and festivals, as well as marching every football game on their instrument.
This sort of thing is not unexpected. Our band alumni who later became doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, teachers, on the staff of the Atlanta symphony or even the San Francisco conservatory of music don’t merit the same mention.
But it’s hard to blame the editor for concentrating on one single aspect of a person’s life; society as a whole seems to have become more narrow-minded. Now more than ever we look at a single issue as the most important part of a topic, an era, a person.
As a community, we’re currently spending a huge amount of energy on data centers. Even as we work to push away that industry, what opportunities are we failing to attract from other sectors? We’re missing our future forest for the trees.
In another example, 25 years ago the town went all out to celebrate the “Censilver” anniversary marking the 125th year since our founding…now at 150, crickets. Nothing. The past no longer matters either. And I’m disappointed I can’t bandy about the word “sesquicentennial” in public.
In politics, single-issue hot buttons define each candidate, regardless of party. Does that Democrat truly only care about flooding girls’ locker rooms with hulking brutish men wearing dresses? Does that Republican only want jack-booted thugs yanking kids out of school?
Taking a wider look at things requires time, intelligence, and effort…all qualities sorely lacking in the public space.
It’s time to open our eyes and take a wider look.