Sometimes in the rush to be the biggest, best, shiniest and most important, we get lost in the fact that the details make the difference.
For years, many Chatham residents have driven past a group of people standing in the snow, rain, howling winds or unbearable heat and not given them a second thought.
The people we’re speaking of stand in a desolate parking lot at our biggest shopping centre, waiting at a bus stop that doesn’t even officially exist.
For whatever reason, from financial to medical to philosophical, they choose to take public transit.
When we started making phone calls last week about the decades-old problem, it became obvious that we weren’t the only ones with blinders on.
The owners of the property, as one bus rider pointed out, seemed to care more about their shopping carts than their customers.
Municipal staff, who now seem to be very much on board, probably weren’t back then.
Putting in a bus stop or a bus shelter isn’t that complicated if you have the will or direction. It should not take years.
You can bet if it were an issue that would have attracted foreign investors, it would have been done a lot sooner.
It’s not to say that any of these people are evil or cruel.
They just need to look at things differently.
We want to have a model community. Our leaders travel far and wide, gaining accolades and such.
We must be doing a good job, since the consultants we hire to tell us so and certainly seem to believe in us.
There’s a point where ambition and reality meet, however, and we need to visit that spot more often.
We were told once by a visionary newspaper owner (back when those types of people really existed) that well done is much better than well said.
It’s true, and we’re not immune to that, either.
We drove by those same people for years without realizing what we saw.
A bus stop (a bus shelter would be better) is not the community’s greatest need.
But for those people impacted, it seems as if, for a brief moment, that they are as important to Chatham-Kent as those in suits.
It’s good to finally get it right.
