Let's take stock.

 On Saturday, October 16, I attended the Chestnut Festival at the Linefork-Kingdom Come Community Center, located on Linefork Creek in Letcher County, Kentucky. This is near where Kentucky borders with southwestern Virginia.

I saw what I expected to see -- people in the community came together on behalf of each other. All ages were there, including lots of grandparents proudly sharing their heritage with children. Political officeholders and candidates for office were there, but the politicking was all in the context of what is best for the community; there was not even the slightest hint of special-interest politics.

As I sat down to write this posting I read an article that a friend e-mailed me about the American Chestnut tree from this morning's Washington Post. The article said, in essence, that the American Chestnut tree is on the way back, but that this is a very long-term endeavor -- more than a person's lifetime. The article observed that some people might be intimidated by such a long-term commitment; that is no doubt correct in the case of people who measure success in terms of quarterly profits or political polls (or high grades on tests).  But the people at the Linefork Festival were not even slightly intimidated.

I believe there is a powerful lesson here: it is the humanity in communities, not governmenthierarchies, that have staying power. Those people in that little mountain community of Linefork, Kentucky, motivated as they are by love for each other, have staying power that hierarchies can never have. Nature made it that way.

I've had some discussions with friends, and we think it's time to take stock of our terminology. Here's a start.

First, young people need to absorb one message above all others: they need to understand that they matter.

Second, when adults help young people understand that they matter, the adults matter to the young people.

Third, when young people and adults matter to each other, beautiful things can and do happen.

Fourth, young people do not matter to government hierarchies (or, at best, young people matter less than do the self interests of the hierarchies.) And, when hierarchies are in charge, adults don't much matter either.

Fifth, when citizens don't matter, the political system is broken. And when the political system is broken, the hierarchies tend to become both ignorant and arrogant -- ignorant because they don't understand what is going on at the level of real life in the communities and arrogant because they believe they outrank citizens.

Sixth, when government hierarchies become ignorant and arrogant, they seek (in the words of a wise elder), to put rings in the noses of citizens.

And that's where we are: the hierarchies are promising prettier nose rings. It's up to us, We the People, to instruct the hierarchies to get rid of nose rings, not make them prettier.

Bob Cornett