Small towns and small town values, including our beloved Oracle, have been under assault by forces beyond our control for what seems like forever, certainly since Kaz and I moved here in 1979. Pretending otherwise is burying one’s head in the sand. America just isn’t doing right by small places. The “Bigs” in frantic pursuit of (more) wealth and (more) power could give a shit about ANY of us much less our town as a whole.
Media opinionators cast (occasionally) patronizing looks at our circumstances with a nostalgic glance backward to what has been lost. Dealing with the power story behind what’s currently happening requires a deep dive into what’s really going on. Nobody with Big Power/Money stands up for small towns or ever shares what they know about how the world really works. They know how they screw us and they ain’t spilling.
Local journalists like Dean Prichard, Ellie Matuche, JC Huntington, John Hernandez, Darrell Klesch among many others knew this and wrote about it.
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Pinal County is ruled by the Bigs. Big Utilities, Big Mines, Big Developers, Big Tech, Big Data, Big Government, Big Energy, Big Money. Ordinary citizens are left to scrabble around at the bottom of the hieararchy competing for scraps. Consorting with the Bigs at the top of the ruling hierarchy are lawyer/fixer/lobbyists, value-free masters of the mechanics of manipulation, fully engaged with delivering for their client benefactors, rolling in cash to make things happen. In the middle, pretending to run things in Pinal County for the common good, are five men who sometimes do the right thing but only when pressed by local organizing.
In this sheme of things small businesses take a direct hit. Like Oracle they’re on their own … unless we support them
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Thankfully there is an alternative pathway that is inspired and inspiring. And Oracle residents pretty much agree on what it is.
Nurture our own creative ventures, including small businesses
Organize to fight the Bigs when the opportunity presents
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When Secret Garden folks rolled into town I was somewhat skeptical. They snapped up a great old property and set to work. Hands on. Beginning to make a significant contribution to Oracle. Both by saving an historic property and ginning up already valued programatic initiatives. Kaz picked up a box of veggies for us a couple days ago and enjoyed some of that bounty for dinner the same evening.
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It’s a David and Goliath story. Always. The Bigs are heat seeking missiles for any hint of local fight back, refusing to yield time, energy and control of public money as they pursue their pet projects and commandeer resources (think land, water, and energy) they deem vital to the current and future aggrandizement of their own money and power. Bribing and intimidating, manipulating regulations and bureaucracies, their greed is consumptive. False “populisms” advanced for monetery and political gains - an endless flow of baits and switches to mask what’s going on.
Fortunately for Oracle, local Davids know how to launch projects, start businesses and plant gardens.
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One of these days “our supervisors” will figure out who’s side they need to be on when the grand reckoning of ordinary people goes public. It’s coming and it’s about time.
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