The Intern Lottery and Book Club (3 min)

Its not often you hit the intern lottery. Trust me, in 25 plus years I've seen a lot of college students, some good, some... not so much. This summer however I hit what I would consider to be the intern lottery... two graduate level interns from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Oh, the discussions! Questions, challenges and new considerations for the status quo if just for the sake of broader debate. It was as fun as it was enlightening and I hope they learned as much as we did when they left us in West Point, Mississippi.

Just before packing up and heading to Tyler, Texas for a quick visit home before making the journey to Boston one of the interns and I met for coffee at Jubilations coffee shop across from the new Taco Bell on Hwy 45. Our discussion was both a recap of his summer project and a philosophical dialog on advancing local (and rural) economies. While we did not identify any new secret sauce for rural development we entertained ideas and hypothesis worthy of debate. In time, I may offer some thoughts here on the subject.

In the course of discussion my intern recommended Robert Putnam's latest book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. Before I finished my caramel latte I made it to Amazon and with one click ordering and a Prime subscription the book arrived two days later. I'll admit it sat on my nightstand for a couple of days until last night when I tackled the first chapter. As an American Studies major in college I've spent some time trying to understand our shared cultural motivations as Americans and was quickly drawn into the new book. If you like, perhaps you will join me in reading it and we can discuss points and counter points in the comment section below. I ask this not just for the hope that we can search for answers to improving lives together but also to help keep me honest in finishing the book within my reasonable goal of two weeks!

Putnam's book begins in 1959 and focuses on the social infrastructure of the time that upheld, sustained and propelled his fellow high school classmates to what was described as fulfilling lives. About half way through the first chapter I was reminded of a favorite paragraph from Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again which was published in 1940 but shared some of the same social standards. Its a paragraph I had taped to my desk for a number of years as a reminder of my role in economic development.

"So, then, to every man his chance — to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity — to every man the right to live, to work to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him — this seeker, is the promise of America." - Thomas Wolfe in You Can't Go Home Again

As I continue with Putnam, join me as we search to discover where "this promise" lies today and perhaps how we might restore it to its original intent and with it, improve the communities we serve.