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Butch Furse
After scanning newspaper headlines and newscasts concerning Haiti and Afghanistan, we’re thankful we live in the good old USA.
It’s hard for us to imagine how citizens of one of the world’s poorest countries can endure two earthquakes with heavy loss of life just over a decade and now try to overcome storms; lose a president to assassination; lose homes and businesses; face lootings from gangs; have limited heathcare; and the list goes on and on.
As for Afghanistan, it’s a colossal failure. A collapsed government; a collapsed economy; mass migration of the citizenry; and those who remain cannot escape an uncertain future under Taliban control.
It’s pretty hard for us to visualize living under those circumstances, isn’t it?
Yes, we complain about our nation’s political bickering. We don’t like tax time. We feel sometimes the majority of our citizens are carrying a chip on their shoulders.
Now step back and take a closer look at the so many good things in our communities. While we can’t speak for USA citizens we can make a pretty good assessment of our own community.
It’s pretty hard to find many small-town communities better than Aurora and we will give credit to those before us who established traditions that we have upheld and continue to add new or improve.
Good schools, a strong retail core, industrial development, healthcare and a progressive government that has city as well as county government jointly working toward common goals. All this came about aided by the most important factor. That is the cooperation of the good citizenry of Aurora and Hamilton County.
Our Betterhalf said it best the other evening after she put down her newspaper. “We’ve got so many good people in our community who already have done good things that made this a good community, but now we have so many more who are making our good community even better today,” she said.
Let’s keep up the good work. It not only makes Nebraska the site of the good life, but Aurora and Hamilton County as well.
RL Furse is publisher emeritus of the News-Register
