Editorial: Make Your Voice Heard
By Rossland Telegraph
Even as a kind of cosmic alignment seems to be occurring south of the border something similar may be taking place here in tiny Rossland. In the United States, the threat of economic and ecological collapse are being countered by the choice of a new president, Barack Hussein Obama, who represents a progressive, deracinated vision of his country. Big forces are at work down south, and it can be argued that the American public, after years of sitting on the couch bloated with cheap food and stunned by cheap television are about to wake up and look at the terrible mess they’ve made at home and around the world. And once they see the challenge clearly, they’ll rise to it. Americans are good at that. Here in the West Kootenay, it’s not that different. The current economic crisis will place Rossland’s resort industry under considerable stress. Our environment, specifically our watershed, is under threat. And our high school, one of Rossland’s core sources of community pride, may be in danger, thanks to our shrinking population and consequent declining enrolment. All these factors, lined up as they are, force us to ask one question: what do we want Rossland to be? We’ll have to answer this question soon, needless to say, or it will be answered for us. Here at the Telegraph, we think Rossland needs to be a sustainable community, first and foremost. A sustainable community has good water, a diverse economic foundation, and the ability to educate its kids. Young families don’t move to expensive resort towns; neither do they move to towns that lack a fully-functional education system. Someone coming to the Kootenays looking for a new home would take one look at Nelson and one look at a high school-less Rossland and pass us by. Losing RSS would be a death knell for a sustainable Rossland. RSS is a wonderful school: students excel at academics, the arts, and sports. RSS also keeps our kids close to home, where they belong. We can’t afford to lose it. Next week, on November 13 (7:00 pm in the RSS gym), Rosslanders are being asked to show up and make their support for K-12 education known to the school board. We might come out of the current turmoil with a brand new high school, or we might lose the one we have. A lot is at stake. Rossland has an impressive history of supporting RSS. Show up on November 13 and make your voice heard.
