[Vision2020] The Reward Fund

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

As I was laying in bed these past couple hours, I was trying to think of a
name for the fund; the fund being created later today . . . the funds to
be made payable to the individual(s) instrumental in the identification
and subsequent prosecution of the individual(s) responsible for creating
and distribting the scam postcard.

I have come up with one; a name that reflects exactly what the
perpertrator did.

Before I fill you in on the fund's name . . .

While serving in Germany in the Army, I came up on orders transferring me
to Fort Irwin, California.

My wife and I decided to order a new car (a 1982 Chevrolet Cavalier
Hatchback), which we picked up in Philadelphia and drove across country.

Let me tell you . . . we drove 3,000+ miles across some of the most
beautiful terrain the NIfty Fity (USA) has to offer . . . from
Philadelphia, through Virginia . . . West Virginia . . . Tennessee . . .
Iowa . . . South Dakota . . . Wyoming . . . Montana . . . and into Idaho.

With the exception of that miserable stretch form Sioux Falls to Rapid
City (South Dakota), I felt that there simply could not be any place more
beautiful.

That was until we drove over Lookout Pass on I-90 from Montana into Idaho.
 When I first glanced at North Idaho I experienced a feeling of "home". 
The first words I told my wife, upon entering Idaho, were "I am going to
die of old age here."

Upon retirement from the Army in 1989 my wife and I moved to Pinehurst,
Idaho in the Silver Valley, where I commuted to and from work in Coeur
d'Alene and later North Idaho College where I attended classes.

As much as I fell in love with the terrain of North Idaho, I still kinda
felt that something was missing.

That "something" was a sense of community . . . of "neighborhood"; that
feeling I enjoyed as a kid growing up in Van Nuys, California . . . that
sense of neighborhood one experiences while talking with (or about)
friends down the street . . . the neighborhood store whose customer base
is so local and firm that it feels like family.

I rediscovered that sense of "community" and "neighborhood" when I
transferred from North Idaho College to the University of Idaho in 1992.

I sensed the "comunity" and "neighborhood" almost immediately over a few
beers at Murdock's and the Rathaus; local watering holes long gone.  But,
this community of ours is still a neighborhood that is reflected in places
like the Moscow Food Co-Op, BookPeople of Moscow, Tri-State, the Corner
Club, and so on and so on.

That sense of "community" and "neighborhood" is important to me, and
should be for all of us.

But, that sense of "community" and "neighborhood" was threatened this last
Saturday morning by nothing more than a postcard, a postcard threatening
to rob the city of Moscow of its sense of "community" and "neighborhood".

So, when you fine people of the neighborhood send your money to the fund,
make the checks payable to . . .

"To Catch a Thief"

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown