A BIG IDEA ABOUT BEG IDEAS?

Was December 6, 2009 a turning point for the future of Canton and all of Stark County?

In celebration of  Germane Swanson's "big" idea of Canton becoming the Pro Football Hall of Fame city, the Repository editors dug out a bit of Canton history to make a point.

Yesterday, 50 years ago Swanson birthed the "big" idea.

And, we all now know, "the results of the 'big' idea are still coming in.

Canton and Stark County of today are still living on Swanson's big idea that just didn't happen.  He doggedly pursued it.  He and others made it happen.

Where are to Germane Swansons of today?

Why don't Mayor William J. Healy (and his apparently comatose "Stark County Mayors Association") and Todd Bosley (president of the Stark County Board of Commissioners) convene a task for to come of with a list of 10 ideas that have the potential to produce the yield of the Swanson idea?

The SCPR applauds the editors for coming up with their idea of the need to generate big ideas.

The question is this.

Are Stark County's leaders capable of generating big ideas?

If not, do they have the political courage to admit such and go a comb the more than 300,000 Stark Countians to find those with big ideas?

Former commissioner Tom Harmon's idea (borrowed from Elizabeth Burick) for a horse show arena at the Stark County fairgrounds was a start, but it was not big enough to be a big idea.

Commissioner Todd Bosley's idea of a BioMass project is a promising idea but it hardly qualifies as a big idea.

Commissioner Pete Ferguson's idea of converting the former Doctors Hospital into a local VA clinic is of the "day late, dollar short" variety.  But if the politicos (Boccieri and Sherrod Brown) had any "real" political clout to help Ferguson pull off his idea, such a project would be significant to the overall economy of Stark County.  But a big idea?  No.

Mayor William J. Healy, II deserves special treatment.

As a candidate for mayor, Healy self-promoted as an entrepreneur-extraordinaire who would bring his erudite academic and business qualities to bear on Canton immediately.

Here we are two years later with Canton languishing in a survival mode with his pet economic development project (Hercules) totally stagnated.  Apparently, his plan for Canton is to grow through annexation.  A dead end street if the SCPR has ever seen one.

A term that The Rep editors used in their editorial which strikes The Report as especially useful is the word "moxie."

The one word does describe more than any other word the qualifier that needs to be appended to the notion of  "the big idea."

In times like these, it will only be those with "moxie" who will see their big ideas bear fruit.

Have the Rep editors hit on something of a big idea themselves.

Will they have the moxie to prod, probe and push Canton/Stark County leadership to come up with big ideas and couple them with highly honed moxie skills?

The SCPR has been pushing Stark County government and leadership since its beginning on March 12, 2008 to develop and bring to fruition "the big idea."

And the SCPR does has the moxie to move Stark County officials and leadership forward!!!