Community should give young people chance

If you want young people to return or to come to Richland County, the signs are not clear. If you want younger people to start taking over leadership positions in the community, you aren’t showing it.

Time after time, we hear residents go on about how important it is for our young people to stay or return here. These people understand that our community will slowly die if we don’t have more young adults.

But we wonder if our area really is committed to the young people, or is it that we just want them to commit to living here, spend money here, pay taxes here and raise their kids here.

During the past few weeks, we’ve seen occasions where organizations could have put younger individuals on their board of directors. The trend, however, was to stay with the status quo. Not in any way are we trying to downplay the contributions that veteran members have done for their organizations. We realize Richland County wouldn’t be the same great place without these people.

But we do wonder, when is the time for new blood? If not now, when will members of organizations and boards welcome these enthused younger people by electing them to serve?

We realize there are exceptions and that, for instance, the chamber has some younger adults involved. We are just worried too many of us are missing the boat by not taking advantage of these fresh minds in our area and are not willing to put them in decision-making positions. So the next time a board position comes up, think for a moment and give younger people a chance to get involved.