"We're also out of coffee"

I would hope that the next generation of Richmond leaders will choose to identify ways to bring the community together around common goals that improve the quality of life.

Encourage everyone to support something, or someone outside their family and friends.
Identify good things in the community and suggest ways to create a Richmond where you would want your children to live.

If you need a start:

Shop at the Clear Creek Co-op once a week and spend $10.

Eat at a local family-owned restaurant once a week; promote a favorite to your friends.

Support the positive work that the Depot merchants are doing and when someone says that Richmond is falling, remind them that a few years ago it wasn't safe to walk through the Depot area at any time of day or night.

Again, it is easy to see and identify negatives, but it much more rewarding to create a new Richmond with the things you enjoy.

I will not be coming back to Richmond to live as my children are in Northern California, but I am grateful that Vicki brought me to Richmond. I can tell anyone I meet in San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans or New York, that there is a small town in Indiana that has an amazing history with a location and potential that make it an ideal place to live.

You don't have to take my word for it either, just ask anyone who was a volunteer during the Model T Centennial who spoke to the visitors who came from all over the world, loved the time they spent in Richmond, and many who didn't want to leave.

Look forward; Richmond is your home, make it a great place to live.

In my eight mostly enjoyable years here I remain convinced that, as a community, we know how to recognize and celebrate success but remain a tad clueless about surmounting failure, which is why we too often neglect to foresee and thus continue to be handed those failures.