The many bees of Waco

I just can't stay away from Waco-- I had pieces in the paper there on Tuesday and on Sunday last week. The second of these was about the Waco economy, and was given the headline What's Really Buzzing About Waco. 

The idea for the piece came from thinking about Chris Clark, who was one of my students at St. Thomas Law School after he finished his undergrad at Baylor. He was a wonderful member of the community here, and after he graduated he went back to Waco to make his life. He's a guy who is a creator; he bubbles with ideas and has had a great role in starting small businesses both as a lawyer and an entrepreneur.   

I really admire people like Chris, and I think they are more important to thriving communities than we often realize. Here is part of what I said in the Waco Trib piece:

In the north woods I am always struck by the ecology of large and small animals. Bears are large and infrequent visitors, even up in the wilderness of the Boundary Waters, a 1,090,000-acre area within the Superior National Forest straddling the U.S.-Canada border. It is thrilling to glimpse a bear, even as such creatures lumber off when they see you. They are fascinating, but the woods would be pretty much the same without them. The same cannot be said of bees, which are essential to nearly any ecosystem with flowering plants. The woods and meadows can thrive without the bears but will no longer flourish if the bees are gone. After there is a fire, the burned-over area springs back to life with jack pines, their cones buzzing with yellowjackets filling themselves with pollen, the fuel of rebirth.

Like those bees, one could argue that a thousand Chris Clarks are better, in the long run, than one Amazon. 

You can read the whole thing here.