Who doesn’t remember the games we all played as kids? Kick the can comes to mind. Of course, you knew not to kick the can in front of mom’s house, or anywhere someone would get mad and call the cops. Now, I’m only repeating what I’ve heard. As an Owl, I can’t play kick the can because I have only spindly, feathery legs and can’t kick.

Kicking the can is what you did when you didn’t want to make a decision. If a kid didn’t know what to do, nobody was out to play with, there were no games on TV, and nobody to impress, he found a can and kicked it. He kicked it down the block until something else came along. Easy enough. Sort of like our Limestone County these days.

I read some news over someone’s shoulder as I drifted around downtown the other day. A couple of county commissioners were interviewed. One said the uncontrolled county-wide housing construction was a “flood.” What? Another says he doesn’t want to highly prioritze planning for road construction because that would be unwise. He has to see where the houses go up first.

What? A flood? Planning unwise? Where houses go up, as if they popped up like mushrooms? For any housing construction in this county, the builder has to approach the city and county officials to get a permit. Usually, builders want to change a zoning ordinance. A flood is a natural disaster, not something man made. Man made; you know, like giving the OK to zoning changes and construction authorization. No planning? So, let the housing construction just happen and build roads later? Sounds like kicking the can. Seems that determining growth is wiser than just letting everybody fend for themselves, right? Kicking the can for road construction, for someone else to deal with later, is not wise. Why not plan the roads; have home construction development follow the wisely thought through plan?

We currently make no provision to ensure a certain amount of green space in every housing development. Our county and city officials can do this, can require this, but don’t. Kick that can down the road.

Or how about the Animal Shelter? Who’s taking this issue under control? Kick that can down the block. Or what about the wellness center pool situation? Who is planning to ensure our town has a wellness center that will be of service to our county long after all the houses are filled? Kick that can down the block. Parks? We, Limestone Countians, paid a community design company from Franklin, Tenn., to come up with planning ideas for a future welcoming, green, rationally developed county. The plan is good through 2040. That plan is worshiped only from afar. No one has made anything happen concretely to build the parks, apartments, interlaced public transportation services, and neighborhoods the plan calls for. Social services? Have we thought about how, with the change in abortion rulings, there will be more children to care for? We all need to concern ourselves with that and prepare well-funded social networks for children yet unborn. Or we can just kick the can down the block. Let somebody else worry about it.

There are many concerns we, as a county and city, must anticipate. We aren’t victims who can only react to events. Wise planning and anticipation of concerns is one of the reasons we vote for people. We vote for their wise judgements and decisions. We don’t vote for them to pander to special interests, who expect them to do what they want, not what’s best for the county.

Not making a decision is to make a decision. No housing “flood” is happening without someone, some group, allowing it. Other projects for the good of the county are kicked down the road. Not to decide, to let a concern drift, is to make a decision. Fear of making a hard choice might make things seem right in the short term. Better to remember, as J.E.B. Spredemann observed in her book, “An Unforgettable Secret,” “Choices made, whether bad or good, follow you forever and affect everyone in their path one way or another.” Make good choices. Don’t just kick the can.