By REBECCA LANDEWE
There are no headstones in Carter County with my last name on them, and there likely will never be one. I am an outsider. This is not my hometown and my relatives have not worked this land. But Van Buren is my home. My father refers to the Current River as my 'alma mater' - a 'nourishing mother' that helped raise me because the river was (and still is) a significant force in my life. And we experienced all her might last spring.
Rebuilding, redeveloping Van Buren is going to take time. It will be a slow process. This is not news. We have known this from the very beginning. Gutting a structure takes moments compared the effort and resources needed to rebuild one. I spent more than 3 years working on my house to see it all ripped out in less than 3 days. Understandably, we get tired, we get frustrated. In those moments, it is easy to want to blame someone for the discomfort and pain of loss. There is no person, agency, or organization that brought this upon us and no single person, agency, or organization will be the one to lead us out. Theodore Roosevelt once said "self-restraint, self-mastery, common sense, the power of accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, courage and resolution--these are the qualities which mark a masterful people." The traits he lists perfectly describe the 'masterful people' of Carter County. The difficult work that lies ahead is in our ability to act in conjunction with others. The flood impacted us all and together we will help each other out of it.
Roosevelt continues, "It is not the critic who counts... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, ...because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly..." We have all been the man in the arena. In the immediate aftermath of the flood, the striving was easy because the task in front of us was clear. I remember the feeling of unity and common purpose as the entire community worked together to clean up. Now as move to the next stages of rebuilding and recovery, it can be difficult for us to identify how we can contribute, how our varied skills can be brought back to the arena to move our collective purpose forward. We need to find that unity again.
I see enthusiasm in my friends and neighbors searching for a way to help. New initiatives are forming to support the ongoing work. We need all efforts to coordinate and, as Roosevelt said, act in conjunction with each other. Then we will be a truly masterful people, in the arena, daring greatly and working toward the triumph of high achievement, and it will be reflected in the strength of Van Buren and Carter County.