Newton's Third Law of Motion is this: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Given the contentious elections just finished in Ketchum, and on the Blaine County School District's plant facilities levy, the law apparently holds not only in physics, but in human endeavors as well.
To restate the law of physics as it applies to politics: For every change, there is an equal and opposite force opposing change.
Ketchum incumbents faced criticism about the city's decisions to finance creation of a pedestrian, cycling, dining and shopping core on Fourth Street, to purchase property to develop workforce housing, to form a community development corporation and an urban renewal district, and to consider new, big hotel projects.
The school district fielded questions about the wisdom of spending money to install geothermal technologies to make school buildings energy efficient.
The initiatives undertaken by the city and the school district clearly moved a lot of people out of their comfort zones.
Yet, the agents of change prevailed in the elections, and rightly so.
The Sun Valley area has a lot of catching up to do. For too long, forces that clung to the status quo ruled. One local wag harkened back to the year Sun Valley Resort was founded and suggested this motto for the whole area: "Resisting change since 1936."
Valley residents fearful of change need to grab a blankie and a binkie because the only question about change of most kinds is not "if," but "how to respond."
The most productive questions to be asked are: 1) How is any particular change beneficial? 2) What changes should valley communities adopt? 3) How can we best manage change?
Instead of wasting time resisting all change, residents should innovate.
For example, a utility company in San Francisco, Calif., is using tons of food scraps generated by restaurants to produce energy by harnessing methane gas produced by decomposition.
Another California company is speeding the installation of solar energy devices into homes by leasing the expensive systems instead of selling them outright. The company makes money, and homeowners save money.
In beleaguered Las Vegas, a struggling contractor figured out a new way to build structures that cool more efficiently than standard buildings. His business is booming.
None of this is rocket science. Ordinary people who saw a need and were motivated to act on it initiated these new and successful endeavors.
The Sun Valley area can, too.
