Keeping resolutions is difficult

New Year’s resolutions are always easier to make than they are to keep.
But if there’s one thing easier than making New Year’s resolutions, it’s suggesting resolutions for others.
Here are a few we’d like to suggest:
•For Gov. Mike Pence, we’d urge shelving any plans to re-open the state budget during the short session of the Indiana General Assembly. The legislature doesn’t want to do it, you haven’t begun to make a convincing case for eliminating the personal property tax on businesses and local governments are already under stress.
•For the Indiana General Assembly, we’d suggest two. For starters, resolve not to behave as if you were elected to your local school board; trust real school board members to make decisions closer to home. And, in your own best interest and that of the state of Indiana, resolve to make enough changes in HJR 6 — which would set the stage for enshrining a ban on gay marriage and gay civil unions in the state constitution — so that the whole matter moves back to square one. Public opinion on this issue is evolving rapidly; the smartest course of action is to slow things down a bit until some sort of consensus forms.
•For local operators of confined animal feeding operations and folks who are concerned about the environmental impact of those operations, we’d suggest resolving to find common ground. Jay County is at the center of this issue, and there’s an opportunity for the smartest operators to take the lead in initiating a best-practices movement, maybe even partnering with John Jay Center for Learning to develop some sort of certification. There’s no reason that 21st century farming and a safe, clean environment have to be mutually exclusive. Working together, smart people with open minds ought to be able to make something good happen.
•For local units of government, we’d recommend re-dedication to the ideal of transparency. The track record locally when it comes to open meetings and open records is something to be proud of, but it could always be better. Resolve to remember for whom you are working.
•For Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman and the city council, we’d urge a resolution to lead when it comes to providing the community with a new municipal swimming pool. So far, timidity has been the rule. The park board, the mayor and the council all need to step up to the plate. This isn’t someone else’s challenge; it’s yours. You were elected to lead. Lead.
•For Dunkirk Mayor Dan Watson and the Dunkirk City Council, we suggest a resolution not to become discouraged. The Stellar Communities grant application in 2013 didn’t result in funding. But the ideas behind it — especially the notion of restoring the old Stewart Brothers Furniture building as a new home to the Dunkirk Public Library — made great sense. Resolve not to let those ideas fall by the wayside. Believe in them.
•For the rest of us, the suggestions are just as straightforward and don’t change from year to year. Take them to heart: Attend at least one public meeting in 2014, visit a nursing home or retirement home regularly, listen to people whose opinions you don’t share, try to connect in a positive way with a young person who could use a little guidance, think before you speak, eat smaller portions, get more exercise, create something unexpected, surprise someone with kindness, don’t be afraid to tell someone you love them.
That’s only a partial list, of course.
The funny thing about resolutions is we all know what we should do. The hard part is doing just that. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]