I know it's scary and overwhelming for us to bear the responsibility of the well-being and quality of life of all 14,373 of us. In fact, it seems outright impossible to imagine every day, ordinary citizens and a handful of elected officials with limited financial resources making a dent when it comes to issues like civil rights, affordable housing, poverty, and drug use. And I don't blame us for being inclined to focus on those tangible things that more directly impact our every day lives. After all, we don't have the resources to save the world. We're just a tiny, little town in Southeastern Kentucky with a $7 million annual budget. One with a mission to "protect and enhance the quality of life" for its citizens, I might add. And while many of us probably aspire to become the kind of community that values and invests in those more virtuous goals, it's more concrete, more palpable, to accept our fate that the role of local government is limited to making sound fiscal decisions and focusing on those measurable things that make our city run smoothly like roadways and utilities.
But I challenge the good people of Berea with this question: If the local citizens of a town are not the ones who should be addressing these issues, who should? Our state legislators? Our national senators and congressman? Our governor? Fellow Bereans, I urge us to rise above this feeling of helplessness, this notion that these problems are too big, beyond the scope of our expertise, that these things aren't our responsibility. These are not Madison County problems, these are not the state of Kentucky problems. These are ours. It is not some nameless, faceless person going to the food bank every month to feed her kids. It's the woman who scans your groceries. It is not some sketchy teenager in a dark alley shooting up heroin in that other part of town. It's the kid that sits next to yours in class every day.
70% of the students at Berea Community Elementary School receive free and reduced lunches.
22% of Bereans earn less than $15,000 each year.
The median wage earnings for a worker in Berea is less than $21,000.
44.7% of Bereans live in rental housing.
The Berea Police department, Madison County EMS Director and County Coroner are
reporting such an increase in heroin use in Berea and Madison county, that a special task force
has been formed to address this.
Civic responsibility and human compassion aside, we can not truly embrace progress and economic development without first figuring out how to meet the most basic needs of our citizens. Our neighboring cities have already figured this out. This year the city of Lexington passed a budget that included $3.1 million dollars going directly to support local non-profits like food banks, drug prevention programs, and rape crisis programs, and an additional $3.5 million towards affordable housing and homeless initiatives. Most of us are advocates for supporting our local businesses, and we should most definitely do so in order to build a strong economic foundation for our city. But let me challenge you with this: how can we promote a culture of "buying local", when a fifth of our population can barely afford to buy anything, including food for their own families? Many of our city leaders, rightfully so, have their eyes on ways to attract new employers and industry. But even current Berea employers are voicing frustration with the existing work force - that employee absenteeism is increasing and more and more job seekers are unable to pass drug tests. Yes, it would be a dream to have a vocational school for job development and to give our youth a reason to stay in Berea, but what good is a post-secondary education when our kids are struggling to even graduate from our high schools?
I join many of you in advocating for our tourism industry, for putting Berea on the map, for our sustainability efforts, and for the beautification of our town and recreation options for our citizens - but not at the cost of first investing in our people, especially the ones who are most vulnerable, and whose voices are not represented at the table where the decisions about allocating our resources are being made.
We are not helpless. Our hands are not tied. Some of this region's most innovative, forward thinking, impactful non-profit and economic justice organizations like MACED (Mountain Association for Community Economic Development), FAHE (Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises), and KFTC (Kentuckians for the Commonwealth) are housed right here in Berea. One of the nation's top liberal arts colleges whose guiding mission is to provide opportunity for those with great promise but limited economic resources is at our doorstep. We may not be able to do it all, and do it all right now. But let's not be afraid to even try. Let's not shift the sole responsibility of economic equity, food security, access to mental health/substance use treatment programs, and affordable housing to state and federal officials. It's a no-brainer that we need to maintain our roads, but it's also a no-brainer that we should partner with state agencies, local non-profits, Berea College, and with those directly impacted by these issues, to identify and find the resources we need to truly advance Berea ... by first tackling the existing barriers that stand in the way of true progress. Regardless of whether or not we can all agree on every issue that we face, at the end of the day we are Bereans. And if we don't own this, I assure you, no one else will.
Let's stop aspiring to be the kind of town that invests in its people.
Let's BE that town.
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