As you may remember from previous Newsletters, I enjoy the outdoors and walk daily. I trek down the same trail each day never getting bored with the scenery and apparent safety of the route. The routine adds a sense of security and solitude, creating a mental atmosphere that is conducive to my wandering thoughts that seem more significant and worldly wise than they really are. Today I was gently shocked out of my trance-like walk. I arrived at an intersection at which I have not seen a vehicle in the past two years. Naturally I ventured to cross the street with little concern of my environment. Today from two different directions vehicles quickly and unexpectedly converged at this intersection, at the same moment. One driver was busy on a cell phone, two others clearly saw me attempting to cross the intersection and acknowledged the pedestrian right of way. The cell phone driver eventually saw me but had entered the intersection with the intent of not stopping. I immediately stepped clear of the larger mass bearing down on me and graciously allowed her to pass. I proceeded across the intersection without further conflict.

There are many lessons that can be drawn from this near calamitous experience. What I find fascinating is that singularly each occurrence: a pedestrian crossing a street, vehicles entering this particular seldom used intersection, would be routine and uneventful. However when each happening occupies the same space and time the outcome is dramatically altered.

The real estate market in Las Vegas is an example of a convergence of seemingly ordinary and innocuous events in a business environment that was deemed for years to be safe and bullet proof. The outcome created has been near fatal to our financial security. A slow down in construction, a rising unemployment, a diminished tourist trade, non diversification of the local economy, singularly these economic conditions could have been dealt with, but collectively created a Titanic event.  We have experienced all the conditions that feed upon themselves and aggravate the spiraling conditions. Local, state and federal governments have yet to address the causative factors but work on peripherals that prolong the conditions and expend diminished monetary resources unwisely. Our time will soon expire to effectively create change. We must seek out and support leadership that has the interest of populace, demonstrate sound economic beliefs, and are not motivated for personal and political gain.