Testimonial - Bill DeFries

Bill DeFries, teacher Richard King High School (CCISD)

Every once in awhile, a project emerges from a series of gatherings with just regular folks; people who know a community and yearn for it to become better, those who know how things can and should work, to find forward, and find it in a meaningful way with a positive vision. It was out of that frustration, knowledge, yearning and, yes, hope for Nueces and San Patricio counties that the small initial gathering of BoldFuture turned into the large input and follow-up gathering and became again a number of small gatherings working in six areas to find that vision. Not folks with money or political clout, necessarily, but folks who live and watch, take notice and wonder, and consider ideas, possibilities and potential partners for making some things happen; people who don’t need political buy-in, because they live and work here and have already invested, through their mortgages, careers and lives to making it work in this place.

What a large charge working with the Sustainable Environment action team participants on the work areas of the BoldFuture for the Coastal Bend project. As facilitator, I found myself for a few hours every other week for a few months surrounded by some of the brightest minds in the region on issues such as water, air and land use, and how we can keep them viable (and us along with them) far into the future. Lively discussions across the table about everything from urban sprawl to more and better recycling, from voluntary beach and bayfront clean-ups to where that dirty oil from your driveway oil change goes when you pour it down the sewer, from what new and existing industry does to the air in the Coastal Bend to what new, viable energy resources are available and can be utilized here. And because the folks at the table weren’t part of any particular governing body or had any political agenda to bear, the discussions were always about what’s best for the natural resources of the Coastal Bend and, therefore, all of us who benefit from them. Listening to folks who’ve watched the region develop and parts of it deteriorate, but who work in areas to fix the bad and sustain the good in those resources made me appreciate what can happen in a room which is full of wisdom and brilliance and absolutely void of ego. How refreshing!

It’s the stuff that makes an old career community newspaper guy see the glimmer of multiple lights at the end of a myriad of possible tunnels and regain the hope that these neighboring bayfront communities can again find their sea legs and engage in some activities together, with the help and assistance of local governments, industry and multiples of individuals with their sweat equity, which will carry us into new and viable futures offering better possibilities that this place will be here and healthy for our retirement as well as offering a place where our children and grandchildren can build a future.

BoldFuture makes me hopeful, and the work of the Sustainable Environment team reminds me of the wealth of folks who have ideas and answers, even to those questions nobody is asking, but should be. I look forward to the April 17 event at American Bank Center and for the “what next” that grows out of the hundreds of people offering input and wisdom over the past year or so in this grassroots effort. It reminds me that it isn’t about the size or make of the car we drive, what end of town or what side of the bay we live in, who we vote for or how much money is in his or her bank account as much as it’s important for the residents of the Coastal Bend to be about grabbing hold of the challenges and becoming part of the solution. Talking about these issues as we’ve begun to do and finding partners to help make things happen does a lot for us taking personal responsibility in what happens here. It’s time for a BoldFuture, if for no other reason than the fact that none of us really want to consider the alternative.

But there is a better reason… We don’t have to consider the alternative. We can do this.