Working Together
Permit me one more reference to RAGBRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, which finishes tomorrow after a sweltering week, and after a year off for COVID.
Waterloo is the fifth place I’ve lived or worked in that hosted an overnight stop…and Waterloo is by far the largest city that hosted one I’ve attended. That made it different to begin with; when the host city has a population of 10,000 or less, it has a much different feel–not better or worse, it’s just a different dynamic.
Regardless of the size of the community, folks have to work together in order to pull off something of this magnitude. The number of people involved, all pulling the same direction…hard to imagine unless you actually went through it.
Now imagine that same number of people all pulling the same direction on a regular basis, to improve their city, improve their region. But that obviously is harder to pull off.
There’s a lot of political division in Waterloo right now, perhaps accentuated because this is a municipal election year. It seems, though, like it’s been going on for a while. Much of it is just because its the sixth largest city in the state, and more people means more different opinions.
So for the common purpose of hosting 20,000 people for a day and night, things can come together. But for the long-term, can that same “RAGBRAI Spirit” be ginned up? What a legacy that would be, long after the purple glow sticks have faded.
