Opinion

Time to invest in Clarksville’s future

By LOU ANTONELLI

Managing Editor

Nobody likes to pay taxes, but most people also know taxes are an investment in your community.

If it weren’t for taxes, we wouldn’t have paved streets, running water or public education. Perhaps we have become too comfortable with such things.

Remember a few weeks ago when an eight-inch water main blew out downtown and much of the city lacked water all day? Pretty inconvenient, wasn’t it? Billions of people live in countries where the norm is that you have to fetch water every day and bring it to your home. How would you like to have to walk to Langford Lake every morning to get your daily water for cooking and bathing?

People complain about potholes but seldom notice how many miles there are without potholes. In many countries muddy tracks are all that pass for roads.

Nobody likes to waste money, but when you stop and think how money is applied by government you realize a lot more is accomplished than we think.

Free public education is the keystone of a civil society. There may be flaws in the system, and not everybody uses the system as they should, but can you imagine what it would be like if there were no schools, and children were allowed to grow up unsupervised and uneducated?

There are countries around the world where millions have no paved roads and no public water system – but children still don uniforms and report to a school house every morning.

Our children and our future are pretty important, and I think the request by the Clarksville ISD for a small tax increase is very reasonable.

I’m not a Clarksville native, which is good sometimes because I feel I can look at things without prior opinions or family associations getting in the way.

Clarksville’s schoolchildren are respectful, hard working and well-educated. It’s amazing to see how well they represent themselves, to the community as well as others when they travel out-of-town for events.

The money invested in their education will send out ripples into the future. We will all benefit, both as individuals and businesses.

This is no time to engage in the usual small-town negative gossip and back-biting. Let’s allow out better natures to come forward, and show our children as well as others around us that Clarksville cares.