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I will agree, JR, what Gov. Hunt said about us getting serious about education and replacing the status-quo leadership in this area with young professionals who are ready to take the reins on our city and county boards.

But I'll take it one step further. I'll tell you what I told a poster on my blog yesterday:

We’ve seen the effects of "economic development" here. Despite this area growing population-wise (overtaxing our police/water/city services/schools), we're continuously still seeing local companies announce job losses and layoffs. 200 jobs here, 300 jobs there, 400 jobs somewhere else. And then the periodic single announcement of ONE company bringing in 75 jobs.

I read the Kinsey report a few years ago…it said if we don’t halt our brain drain, we will be in trouble. Almost 10 years later, we still have a brain drain. Ten years from now, we will still be talking about the same things.

And the young professionals that do stay, that have degrees, are forced to choose from $9 to $10 an hour service or secretarial jobs (many of them part-time with no benefits) because there simply are not enough good opportunities for our young professionals to choose from here. Many of them commute to the Triangle for employment.

Don’t believe me? E-mail me offline and I’ll tell you about my seven-month job search that’s still ongoing. I hate to sound bitter, but I'm a realist. And frankly, I’m sick of the lies and the spin and the constant surveys and the conferences…it’s all crap. Reading about the constant rifts between this board and that board, the constant race-baiting that's so prevalent by some of our public officials, the constant call for healing...it's 2008. If we haven't healed by now, there's something wrong.

I'm about action, not words. Let’s work together to fix our schools, get a real school chief in here who will do something for our children, replace our school board, work to replace some in city hall and the county board, work hard to get some real companies with good paying jobs in this town so I don’t have to drive a cab, and replace the status quo because it is that status quo that’s ruining this area.

And some still wonder why Raleigh and Charlotte continue to bypass us economically. I want Guilford to have its own identity, but we don't have one right now. And we won't have one until we start getting serious about cleaning the mess in our house.

Voters ultimately make the difference in government and school leadership when they go to the polls. I think Jim Hunt had it right when he said Greensboro needs to move away from top-down leadership in favor of more broadly based leadership that is fused with new and creative ideas for moving the city ahead.

It's hard to step aside and give up power when one has been at the top for a long time, such as the Melvin dominated old guard or the Simkins political machine. That doesn't mean surrender, but rather to open the opportunity for new people with new ideas to surface and make an impact. Travel to Charlotte and feel the community spirit, or to Raleigh to sense the strong community fabric. It's all about the city, not just particular groups or individuals.