Clarksville TN - Help make it a better place if you can

Clarksville TN - Help make it a better place if you can.  

What can YOU do to make Clarksville TN a better place to live?  That was the thread title on a local forum that I visit from time to time.  It started back in May of 2008 and had over 31 pages of responses - my immediate thought was  WOW this is great!  I made it to page 12 and skipped to the end.  A bunch of complaining was basically what it turned out to be.  One page of quality ideas and 30 pages of pure nonsense which the moderators apparently allowed.

Anyhow, I believe the question has merit and can easily be applied to any town or city in the U.S.A.  If people would sincerely ask themselves this question:  What can YOU do to make (Insert City Name Here) a better place to live?  Speaking of Clarksville Tennessee (where we live) I can answer that and practice what I preach type.  It is easy to simply sit here and "say" what I "would" do - it is entirely different to back it up.  While I am simply ONE in a city of over one hundred thousand -  if I (One) get out there and "DO" then someone will notice and join me, thus a chain reaction.  Sounds too easy right?  Never going to happen right?

I don't buy that for a minute - I believe in the power of positive examples and while I will not get everyone to "DO" if I only get ten, then that is ten more that have made Clarksville TN  a better place to live regardless of how insignificant their efforts may appear in the grander scheme of things.  Before I answer the question that has been posed let me first answer the question that is inherent of the master question:

What am I doing to make Clarksville a better place to live?  You first must address this question yourself before answering the other.  This could prove difficult for some as they may not realize what they "DO" or may come to a quick realization that the "DO NOTHING" or do things that make Clarksville Tennessee a worse place in which to live.

For me, it starts at the home- My Home (or Our Home). I ensure that my home is in good repair, my lawn is maintained and that I have beautiful flowers for all to view, for the butterflies, bees, etc to visit. My neighbors, most of whom are older and cannot get out in the heat of the day and plant flower beds certainly say that we "DO" make our neighborhood a better place in which to live (a sub-component of Clarksville). Additionally, at the home, I assist my neighbors with watching their homes, helping cut down a tree, repair a gutter, etc in order to add.

At the School- in which my daughter attends - Pam and I are at every meeting and every event when we are in town. We are very involved in the school and I can tell you that this DOES matter and it DOES reflect on the children and the school as a whole when parents get involved. The records prove this as our daughter's school was consistently in the top of the district in the past couple years - this starts at home and extends into the school which is another sub-component of Clarksville TN.

Now that I have answered that, it appears that I can "DO" much more, but what?  Time to ask myself the question I have posed:

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE CLARKSVILLE TENNESSEE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?

• Get involved with the local community - go to the city council meetings that are open to the public and make my opinion count.

 • VOTE - many people like to complain that their local government is doing nothing, or doing a bad job, or far worse corrupt, etc - I'll bet that the most vocal of these don't even take the one hour it would take to exercise their right to vote. Could you imagine if we had 70% of Americans vote during a general election? (Pam and I do vote - BUT we were once in the other category)

• Volunteer! Can be as simple as volunteering to sponsor a mile on the one of Clarksville's highways or major roads in order to ensure that mile is free of litter.  Perhaps a volunteer in the Citizen Police Program to assist our authorities in cleaning up crime. One of the wealthiest men in our city walks our neighborhood every Sunday with a trash bag and picks up trash along the road!  He could easily afford to pay someone to do so, but ‘HE DOES' himself.

• Speak-out!  Instead of talking on boards or with friends about a nasty area in town - go up, knock on the door and ‘Ask' if they would clean up their area - or better yet VOLUNTEER to assist them. Never know, it might be an elderly couple who just cannot do it, nor can they afford to have it done.   

• Sponsorship - Goes hand in hand with volunteering. Get with your local office (Realtors) or your Civitan club and Sponsor a family - an area, etc. A good idea that I want to try to get our office to do would be to Sponsor an area downtown to cleanup .

In the end, one is the start to many. What can you do to make your City a better place in which to live?