Before he mastered the B3, Booker T. Washington was an influential Black American. Here’s a paragraph from a speech he gave in 1895.
A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: “Water, water. We die of thirst.” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time, the signal, “Water, send us water!” went up from the distressed vessel. And was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A third and fourth signal for water was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River.
El Paso is in the habit of looking outward for answers, and not developing what we have. Every effort is made to attract outside industries, instead of providing a nurturing environment for homegrown talent.
We should develop our strengths, instead of throwing money at our weaknesses.
I like the way you express this thought. We do, indeed, need to learn to work with what we have, and stop looking outside for all our answers. A big part of that is to stop looking for outside firms as consultants to City and County projects and planning, and to stop hiring administrators and CEOs, etc., from out of town, when we have local people capable of doing good work right here.