By Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, Hamilton
So – some people in the Valley would really like to have a big box store come in to provide jobs and to make it no longer necessary to drive to Missoula to get cheaply the kind of stuff available at, well, Walmart. And other people in the Valley believe it would destroy much that is special here, like really shopping locally and really caring about nature and the environment in general.
Recently I have read about a community in Tennessee that purchased and runs its own gas station so as to keep fuel prices down for residents. And I believe the largest town in Vermont now gets all its energy from renewable sources. And then there’s the new company in Detroit that makes sandals and mud-mats out of abandoned tires. With so many thoughtful, resourceful people here in the Bitterroot – both those who need jobs and those who don’t – can’t we come up with something just as forward-looking that would create the needed jobs and help us all out?
Consuming cheap stuff because we can and other people do is not a sustainable way of life for any of us anymore. Nor are traditional kinds of jobs like logging and mining and using lots of manufactured chemicals to grow crops and animals — not because they’re “bad,” but because they destroy the world around us that we all depend on just to stay alive. Ultimately, “quality of life” depends not on cool cars and designer clothes, but on having decent air to breathe and water to drink.
So what could we do? With increasing interest in Solar Roadways and since we do have a railroad in place, perhaps a facility for recycling glass is a possibility. Or maybe jobs could be created by putting to use some of the otherwise wasted resources here, like building and installing solar panels, or establishing community composting, or processing for food all the apples, cherries, plums, and other good things that are left to rot every year. Surely we can come up with ideas, expertise, and labor a-plenty!
Surely our best option for the future is to become thoughtful consumers, simply for our own sake.