A blossom to the Pleasant View Nursing Home activity director >for getting help to restore the residents' rights to have food brought in from relatives and visitors. - A resident>
Here's a pointed barb for those who would criticize the 100 percent volunteer-driven Future Forward initiative >and or work against it but have probably never been to a meeting of one of its four working groups or tried to participate in any meaningful way. It is one thing to criticize government officials for not participating in a truly open community discussion but to criticize an all-volunteer initiative that seeks at every turn to include the community in its efforts is naïve at best. Yes, the entire Green County area (not just the City of Monroe) needs to come together and start developing a consistent, long-term vision for our future, but taking umbrage with those who are trying to do that is not helpful in any way. It is no secret that the Green County area is deeply factionalized and many key players are in the game simply to protect an isolated piece of turf they have carved out for themselves, their company or their organization (producing a poor environment for collaboration generally). A key example of this is the Monroe Times itself, which seems hell-bent on not publishing information about the Future Forward Web Portal initiative (GreenCountySpotlight.com), presumably because Jeff Rogers and others in that particular food chain see themselves as competitors with that volunteer community effort rather than looking for ways to work with it (perhaps saving their own bacon in the process). Yes, the Times has published information about Future Forward but always seems to gloss over certain aspects of the initiative. Future Forward is a partnership between a number of community organizations which include Monroe Main Street, Young Professionals of Green County, the Kubly Foundation, Green County Smart Communities, Bike Green County and Green County Development Corporation (Green County Leaders, Entrepreneurs and Inventors Club, etc.) to name a few. There is also a great deal of support and participation from local business, government officials, school officials and others. Future Forward is as much a process as it is a group of community entities. If there were no problems to solve, there would be no need for such a group. Rather than criticize, it would be more productive if the naysayers would simply find a way to participate and share in the benefits that can and will come from that participation. - Richard Grahn, Green County Spotlight LLC>
