Folks have asked, as they often ask people foolish enough to dip into punditry, if I feel stung after stepping into a controversial subject.
Well, no. I don't take such criticism personally even when it's meant that way. Humans tend to react emotionally when their strongly held views are challenged. This is just part of our make-up. It shows you care. Nothing wrong with that in my book. Our greater problem might be that not enough people do.
So I wasn't surprised at the letters expressing anger at a few observations I shared a month ago about the local airport. I poked at an article of faith that a group of citizens has organized around - essentially that growth at the airport is the spotted owl for a population surge that could swamp Carson Valley, turning this paradise into just another long set of suburban Reno row houses.
I think pretty much everyone can agree we don't want the Valley to become a wall-to-wall subdivision. Not the people who grew up here, and certainly not the big city refugees who saw the very thing happen where they came from.
I saw that myself growing up in Honolulu and suburban Los Angeles, and decades later in the once-little town of Murrieta, Calif., where L.A. and San Diego have finally crashed into each other, completing the megalopolis from the Mexican border to Ventura. We couldn't escape back to small-town America fast enough.
But if rampant growth is bad for a community, so is stagnation and then decline. I've seen too much of that, too, primarily in the aptly coined Rust Belt in the upper Midwest and Upstate New York.
Growth is tough. Decline might be even worse. Somewhere between the two is that rare sustainable balance, a tricky tightrope to be sure.
Growth and anything that touches on it is a pretty tender subject these days, whatever your view. If you see developments at the airport as heralding the end, you might well be upset at the suggestion that Minden-Tahoe is in little danger of becoming what is feared, try as any airport promoter may.
The spotted owl for some folks is a side show to others, and at least some of those others are longtime residents who remember the airport even before the gliders arrived. It may well be that the airport developed to its rather limited natural potential would ease some of our growth pressure. This irony is heresy in certain circles, of course, and I've invited my share of scorn for hinting at that view.
In public life, a reverse of the adage about praising in public and chastising in private occurs. Fans will tend to tell you in person or over the phone. Critics will write a letter to the editor. That's just the way it is, and I'm fine with that. I don't take my critics personally, but I do take them seriously and try to understand how they formed their opinions.
Overall the feedback from the airport column actually was very positive, and surprisingly so, although you wouldn't know it from the letters. I expect criticism, probably because outrage, a powerful emotion, is the greater motivator than agreement. I was more surprised by the encouragement than those calling for my head, and not just in effigy.
Beyond the provocations, the punches and prods in public debate, I believe the discussion is essential to better public decisions, even when sharp. That's our democratic impulse at work, which has made America so much the stronger for our participation in that "by the people, for the people" ideal.
You don't have to agree with me for me to applaud your participation. Even when you are going after me personally. Hey, I'm glad you care.
n Don Rogers, publisher of The Record-Courier, can be reached at 782-5121, ext. 208, or drogers@recordcourier.com.
