Reliance on self

Listening to Guy Rocha describe Douglas County's pioneer days at the State of the County address reminded us of something that we should be keeping in mind in all of our endeavors, whether in business or government.

The first people who came to Carson Valley managed to make a living without much in the way of technology. They adapted to the land and turned what they found here into their own technology. They managed to survive for more than 5,000 years using their own hands to create tools.

The first settlers who came to Carson Valley didn't have a supermarket to buy food or a home store to purchase lumber. They had to cut the timber to make their own boards. They had to grow their own food or starve.

They dug the network of sloughs that carry water around the Valley without the benefit of modern heavy equipment.

Carson Valley residents were isolated from the rest of Nevada by poor roads, and the fact there wasn't that much to draw people here. That meant they had to rely on their own skills and those of their neighbors to get by.

Today we hire consultants to do things our predecessors did for themselves. Hiring out would have been a luxury to them. They would have formed a committee, put together a list, and voted their conscience, and faced the music if they were wrong.

The current economic climate certainly isn't conducive to spending tax dollars on anything that isn't absolutely necessary. But it's also an opportunity to reconnect to those values that brought people to this Valley.

It's time we realized the value of a dollar by recognizing that $50,000 or $100,000 is a lot of money to spend for advice.

And then look around and find a better way.