Paging George Bailey

Long around December each year, the classic "It's A Wonderful Life" makes its way to the TV screens. We all know the story: Good guy George Bailey sees the impact his one life has had on the town and the people around him. For good measure, Clarence the angel powers up the De Lorean to take George back to the future to see good old Bedford Falls without George's influence. The result: POTTERSVILLE.

Quite unexpectedly, I received an email from a reader who evoked the memories of this film and compared Morrisville today to fictional Bedford Falls/Potterville. In my storage house of unposted stories was one doing just that. I always through it was too corny to actually post until today. Maybe if George would stand up, Morrisville can remain Bedford Falls, and not complete the metamorphosis into Pottersville.

Do you recall the movie "It's A Wonderful Life"? This is where the power of just one man is graphically shown through the intercessions of an angel in training. George Bailey is at the lowest point in his life and he's ready to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. Clarence shows George the before and after of Bedford Falls without George. As usual, all turns out well in the end. The evildoers are foiled, the good guys come out on top, and Clarence gets his wings. There's even an urban legend that Bert the cop and Ernie the cab driver are the inspiration for two of Sesame Street's favorite characters.

Inside the schmaltz is the absolutely incontrovertible truth that one man can make a difference. The only question is how much of a difference and in what direction.

We are watching Morrisville slide into Pottersville status. The Bedford Falls home we know has been in a slow decline since our epic 1955 Little League Championship season. Our main tax generating businesses have folded up and left town. We've become progressively more and more taxed to the point of exasperation and desperation. City services and general maintenance have been cut and curbed and curtailed so much that our schools are on the verge of collapse, we can't agree on new construction to jump start a renaissance, and we're actually contemplating opening a strip club in town.

Take a look back at the history of the town where one man made a difference. Two rather notable examples spring to mind. Robert Morris stood up and became the financier of the American Revolution. Without him, there would be no United States of America. Thomas Stockham was a civic leader, an engineer, an architect, land developer and business leader. He was mayor of Morrisville for sixteen years, and served six terms as Bucks County's member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

There's two examples of men who stood up and had the vision and the guts to make that vision into reality. I'm sure each of you could think of other examples.

It's too much of a blanket statement to say that our local elected leaders today are all vision-less souls. That's not the case at all. There are some fine elected and appointed leaders in town. They are plenty of other leaders who lead by example without an office.

But they have mostly been beaten into submission and irrelevance by the constant barrage of soul-less and vision-less "leaders" who use bullying tactics to keep Morrisville mired in mediocrity. They treat their position as a rationale to keep Morrisville just the way it is, and if you don't like that, we'll hound you until you give up or leave.

How is that leadership? Leadership is pointing the way and bringing the people along with you. Robert Kennedy's often used quote was "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not." That's leadership. Seeing the future and making that potential into a reality.

Instead we have those who see reality and want to freeze-frame it forever. That does nothing but ensure that this town remains trapped like a prehistoric fly in the amber of time.

It's not going to be pretty. We need to have the George Baileys of today stand firm with the few visionary leaders in this town and boot out these soulless hacks. Do you know a George Bailey who might need some help? Coax him out. Support him. Are you a potential George Bailey? Stand up. Let your voice be heard.

Ladies: I've used the masculine consistently here because George is a male character in the movie. There's nothing stopping any of you from being George either.

Does anyone want the part?