Making communities the best ever

Tradition and community. You can have peanut butter without jelly, ham without eggs, biscuits without gravy, a horse without a carriage, even love without marriage. But it’s hard to have a true sense of community without a true sense of tradition.

Both came together in spectacular fashion Saturday at Marion’s Old Settlers Day and Hillsboro’s All-School Reunion. Perfect weather combined with occasionally imperfect memories of years gone by to weave even more tightly our communities’ tapestries of shared experiences and values, occasionally decorated with imparted tales of the diversity of lives rooted here or transplanted elsewhere.

Among Marion’s traditions, which others have begun to cite, is the newspaper pronouncing each year’s parade and reunion the best ever. Crowds seemed a bit down, floats a bit less elaborate, and park attendance not a record-breaker, but the parade was long, enthusiasm remained at an all-time high, and the love and support that spread from one class gathering to the next combined both in Marion and in Hillsboro to qualify for the “best ever” label.

We’re pleased this week to present photos not only of kids’ racing to toss things and gather tasty troves of parade candy but also to document all the classes that gathered in both Marion and Hillsboro. Although some dismiss the views of past graduates as old-fashioned, alumni provide the bedrock on which our communities can build — a much more solid foundation than the shifting sand of indulging in transitory creature comforts.

Pay particular attention to the businesses listed at the bottom as you check class photos to see who aged well and not so well. Thank participating businesses for honoring our communities’ traditions and helping defray the cost of taking and publishing the photos. Also note which businesses chose not to avail themselves of this particular community service and suggest to them that they missed an opportunity to show their community spirit.

Spirit isn’t limited to cheering at sports events. Most of us enjoy athletic contests, from races for preschoolers in the park to challenges of state-ranked football teams. We’re proud of first-rate facilities — pools, gymnasiums, locker rooms, and concession stands — that local taxpayers have gone into debt to provide. But we also realize there’s much more to life — especially the economic life of a community — than fun and games.

Keeping communities vibrant means keeping local businesses vibrant. Shopping at home — even, we unashamedly admit, for such things as advertising, rather than going to out-of-town concerns or the false glitter of social media — is a duty we all must accept if our communities and traditions are to remain alive. Like spreading the Gospel, it’s a practice everyone should encourage everyone else to adopt, especially when someone who might benefit from the practice seems to ignore it in his or her own behavior.

Whether it’s ads or avocados, hammers or fingernails, insurance or investments, what you buy from within your community is not just a product or service but also a stronger community. In our case, advertising pays for 58% of our ever-increasing costs of production — $10,000 more for printing and $20,000 more for postage this year, for example, despite scant evidence that either was any better than it was last year. We’re not alone. Virtually every locally owned business fights a Quixotic battle against the forces of big competitors who care not a whit whether our community thrives.

The tradition of publishing a weekly directory of church services is a good example. Advertisers used to clamor to be seen as supporting faith in the community. Their support is what allowed us to publish the information. Now, it seems, businesses care less about faith and less about community. A tradition of supporting both — and offering newcomers a guide to where they might go to profess their faith — may be forced to draw to an end. Will we as a community lament that loss the way we lament the loss of blue-plate specials at restaurants always open for lunch? Or will we encourage our friends in the business community to continue decades of tradition?

We would never belittle the cohesiveness that focusing on sports contests can provide, but we all must recognize that there’s more to long-term community building than adolescent athletics. We must convey that message everywhere, even to the high school classes that seemed to interpret “Stronger Together” to mean everyone should lift weights in honor of a generous donation of fitness equipment to the Marion schools.

We as citizens can’t seem to do much to move the needle on national or sometimes local political debate. But we can follow the example of Old Settlers Day and the All-School Reunion and keep our communities strong by urging others to honor local traditions of good government and shopping at home.

— Eric Meyer