It’s time to Decide Desoto!!

​It’s Time to DECIDE DESOTO

DeSoto County can be almost anything we decide we want it to be.

But we cannot be everything we want to be all at once.

That may be the uncomfortable truth at the center of nearly every political fight happening in our county today.

We want growth, but we don’t want change.

We want convenience, but we don’t want development.

We want opportunity, but we don’t want more people.

We want better infrastructure, but we don’t want the things that help pay for it.

We want all the benefits of being one of Mississippi’s fastest-growing and most prosperous counties while somehow remaining the quiet collection of small towns many of us remember.

We can have almost anything we want.

But we cannot have everything we want.

And until we decide what we actually want DeSoto County to become, we are going to keep fighting among ourselves about every individual decision that comes along.

Maybe Jackson Isn’t Our Biggest Problem

In Mississippi politics, it is easy to blame Jackson.

And when Jackson won’t do, there is always Washington.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to be frustrated with both.

But I’m increasingly convinced that the greatest obstacle to DeSoto County reaching its potential isn’t bureaucrats sitting behind desks in Jackson or Washington.

Our greatest obstacle may be the division we keep creating right here at home.

For too long, our politics have increasingly organized themselves around factions.

City against city.

Neighborhood against neighborhood.

Old DeSoto against new DeSoto.

Growth against preservation.

Developers against homeowners.

One group of elected officials against another.

And there always seem to be people willing to convince us that somebody on the other side of the county or an issue is coming to destroy our way of life.

Division is politically useful.

It gives us an enemy.

It creates a team.

It turns complicated questions into simple choices between “us” and “them.”

And it keeps us fighting each other instead of asking the much harder question:

Where are we trying to go together?

We Aren’t Four Little Towns Anymore

Forty years ago, DeSoto County really was a collection of small communities separated by farmland, two-lane roads and four-way stops.

Hernando was Hernando.

Southaven was Southaven.

Olive Branch was Olive Branch.

Horn Lake was Horn Lake.

Today, you can drive through much of DeSoto County and never know you left one community and entered another except for the sign beside the road.

We have grown together.

Our economy has grown together.

Our roads have grown together.

Our schools, businesses, neighborhoods and infrastructure increasingly depend on one another.

Yet politically, we sometimes still behave like rival high schools preparing for Friday night.

Pick your team.

Wear your colors.

Beat the other guy.

That might be fun under the lights on Friday night.

It is a terrible way to plan the future of a county.

Worse, there are people who seem perfectly content to keep us divided into those teams.

Because when politics becomes a contest between factions, winning becomes more important than governing.

And defeating the other side becomes more important than deciding where DeSoto County needs to go.

We Want Everything

Listen to what we say we want.

We want wider roads and better interstates.

We want great schools.

We want exceptional public safety.

We want reliable utilities.

We want lightning-fast internet.

We want same-day Amazon delivery.

We want smart cars, smart phones, smart homes, smart pets and smart people.

We want great healthcare nearby.

We want restaurants.

We want shopping.

We want entertainment.

We want jobs and economic opportunity.

In short, we want modern convenience.

Then somebody proposes the physical infrastructure that accompanies a modern, growing community. Suddenly, we aren’t so sure.

We don’t want gas stations.

We don’t want hotels.

We don’t want certain restaurants.

We don’t want data centers.

We don’t want affordable housing.

We don’t want traffic.

We don’t want more subdivisions.

And, most importantly, we don’t want more people unless we can dictate their income and education levels. 

But those aren’t two separate conversations.

They are the same conversation.

Great schools attract people.

Safe neighborhoods attract people.

Good roads attract people.

Fast internet attracts people.

Jobs attract people.

Convenience attracts people.

Opportunity attracts people.

For decades, DeSoto County worked very hard to become a place where people wanted to live.

We succeeded.

We shouldn’t be surprised that people noticed.

There Is No “No Change” Option

This is where I think our political conversation has become fundamentally dishonest.

We sometimes talk as though one of the choices available to us is simply to stop.

Stop growing.

Stop changing.

Freeze DeSoto County at whatever point in its history each of us happens to remember most fondly.

But there is no “no change” option on the ballot.

Change is coming whether we want it or not.

None of us individually created the forces that transformed this county over the last forty years.

We sit beside a major metropolitan area. We are connected to major transportation corridors. We have strong schools, safe communities, interstate access, economic opportunity and proximity to jobs, healthcare, transportation , commerce, transmission lines, data lines, and pipelines. 

Those forces are bigger than any supervisor.

Bigger than any mayor.

Bigger than any planning commission.

Bigger than any Facebook group.

And they aren’t going away.

So the choice isn’t between change and no change.

The choice is between planned change and unplanned change.

We can shape it.

Or we can spend the next twenty years complaining about what it shaped us into.

Almost Anything—But Not Everything

Maybe this is where DeSoto County needs to start.

We need to admit that choices involve tradeoffs.

If we want to preserve rural areas, let’s identify them and protect them.

If we want major commercial corridors, let’s decide where they belong and build the infrastructure to support them.

If we want industrial and technological investment, let’s determine where it makes sense.

If we want vibrant suburban communities, let’s plan for the roads, schools, utilities, public safety and housing they require.

If different parts of DeSoto County should develop differently, let’s say so.

We don’t need every acre of this county to look the same.

We just need every decision to point generally in the same direction.

Because DeSoto County can be almost anything we decide to become.

Quiet communities.

Thriving suburbs.

Rural landscapes.

Commercial centers.

Employment hubs.

A regional economic powerhouse.

There is room for pieces of all of those things.

But we cannot demand all of them, everywhere, simultaneously, without ever accepting the tradeoffs that come with them.

Eventually, grown communities have to make grown-up choices.

Decide DeSoto

What we need isn’t another faction.

We don’t need another group organized around what it opposes.

We don’t need another politician telling one part of DeSoto County that another part is the enemy.

And we don’t need another election where our entire vision for the future can be summarized by the word “NO.”

We need a vision.

That means our supervisors, mayors, legislators, school leaders, economic developers, business leaders and citizens need to begin having different conversations and voters need to demand it. 

What should DeSoto County look like twenty-five years from now?

Not what should my subdivision look like?

Not what does my city want?

Not what does my political faction oppose?

What do WE want?

There will still be disagreements. There should be.

A common vision doesn’t require everyone to agree about everything.

It requires us to agree about where we are generally trying to go.

Then we can argue about the best way to get there.

That’s a much healthier political debate than endlessly arguing about whether we should go anywhere at all.

DeSoto County has become one of the most politically and economically consequential counties in Mississippi.

We ought to start thinking like it.

Our biggest threat isn’t necessarily coming from Washington. It isn’t necessarily coming from Jackson.

It may be coming from right here at home from a political culture that finds it easier to divide people over what they fear than unite them around what they can build.

We can keep choosing sides.

We can keep choosing teams.

We can keep choosing enemies.

Or we can finally choose a future.

DeSoto County can be almost anything we decide to be.

We just have to decide…. Together.