Essays from West of 98: Passion for a Place
A healthy existence in life requires strong doses of both seriousness and laughter. Last week’s essay was heavy (and so were some of the preceding essays). I hope today’s essay is meaningful to you, but in a lighter way.
A few weeks ago, I wrote an essay called “Reading the Room.” I recommended that leaders at every level of public service follow the Dwight Schrute Principle (“don’t be an idiot”) in their decision-making. This was inspired by the great NBC sitcom, “The Office.” Today seems like as good of a time as any to write an essay I’ve wanted to write for a while—one to encourage community leaders to channel the passion of another NBC sitcom character.
“Parks and Recreation” aired from 2009 to 2015 on NBC and is widely available in syndication and on streaming services. It follows the adventures of Leslie Knope, deputy director of parks and recreation in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Leslie Knope loves Pawnee. LOVES IT. Actually, “love” is a bit of an understatement. She works 24/7 for the betterment of her hometown. She gives 210% at her job even though her co-workers are mostly disinterested (at best). She volunteers constantly. She writes position papers and grant applications that nobody asked for. It is unclear when (or if) she ever sleeps.
Pawnee is meant to be something of an everytown. As Indiana’s seventh-largest city, it has some big-city amenities and many small-town attributes. It may have quaint charm, but it is no Mayberry. Violent raccoons control large portions of the town. A massive sewage overflow left a smell that is expected to linger for at least 40 years. The town has a sordid history with the Wamapoke, the local indigenous tribe, and current relations are not much better. The citizens are deeply unhealthy and are charitably described as…passionately deranged. The city council and mayor are even worse. Early in the series, the state forcibly takes over the city’s finances to clean up the incompetence.
Leslie loves Pawnee, but Pawnee does not exactly love her in return. In the first of many instances of citizens ruining a town hall meeting, she optimistically describes yelling citizens as “people caring loudly at me.” Innocuous projects are derailed by deranged citizens or malevolent city councilmen. She runs a successful grassroots campaign for Pawnee City Council, but in her idealistic naivete, she promptly gets herself recalled and removed from office. At a low point, she frets about whether her hard work (for people who may not appreciate it) is even worth it.
But it is worth it. She knows it is, whether people recognize it in the short run. In a pep talk, her boss Ron Swanson encourages her to fight rejection by making a difference anyway. He tells her that if people do not listen to her at one level, find a new level where people WILL listen. She takes a job as a regional director with the National Park Service. Lest you think she abandons Pawnee—after all, she frequently opined “only a moron would ever live anywhere other than Pawnee, Indiana”—she convinces the NPS to locate their new regional office in Pawnee rather than Chicago. Through the leadership of herself and her husband (Pawnee’s new city manager), Pawnee becomes a technology hub and a booming, trendy place to live. In her coup de grâce, she locates a new national park right outside town.
Sure, it is silly. Sure, it is fiction. Sure, she has some terrible policy ideas that make me absolutely cringe. But if you love your hometown, it is hard not to be inspired by the tireless passion of Leslie Knope. To be clear, I would not say “only a moron would ever live anywhere other than Stamford, Texas,” but I certainly think Stamford is a wonderful place to live for anyone reading these words and I expect other community leaders reading this feel similarly about their own towns.
In their fictional universe, it only seemed ridiculous for Leslie and her husband to dream of Pawnee landing a national park and becoming a mini-Silicon Valley, until it happened. Ridiculous ideas are only ridiculous until they come true. Passion fueled with knowledge and hard work can take a person or a place to unforeseen heights.
So: what’s stopping each of us from channeling our own inner Leslie Knope?
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the “West of 98” website and forthcoming podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com.