Whew …we made it!  A whole week into the new decade.

Remember our biggest fear on New
Years Eve 1999? The long dreaded Y2K “bug” destined to paralyze the world’s
computer systems because the two-digit representation of 2000, or “00” didn’t
figure in computer-speak.

But the next morning we heaved a
collective sigh of relief for dodging the bullet of the new decade–or so we
thought–never dreaming of the horror that would befall the World Trade Center
20 months later…

…Never dreaming that the walk
from airport luggage check-in to concourse would become a maze of security
checks from which we would emerge, literally, in our stocking feet…

…Never dreaming that trusted
financial institutions had not learned the most basic lessons of 1929 and that
the 18-month downward spin of our stock market would all but close banks and
mortgage companies whose names were synonymous with American capitalism…

…and never dreaming that this
decade of fear would close with hope, in the person of our first
African-American president.

Perhaps we didn’t have enough
dreamers or people of vision.

So I asked some people of vision
what they see for Chadds Ford in the next decade.

At the moment, Linda Kaat,
President of the beleaguered Brandywine Battlefield Board, is understandably
pessimistic due to last year’s massive state budget cuts.

“Well, that future is here and I don't like what I've seen,” she
said.

So needing some inspiration, Kaat traveled to Mt. Vernon, Virginia, home
of George Washington, and found: 

“Mt Vernon's gift shop has reduced George Washington into a Disney
character... he has his own bobble head doll. It was insulting,” she said. “If
a major grant from a foundation would save [the Brandywine Battlefield
Park] could The Comcast Battlefield be far behind?

“I pray in ten years, we will have our priorities in
place and that over commercialization and materialism will be in check
and the next generation will have found the lost respect
for our heroes and history.”

But the battlefield board has an ally in Jim Duff,
Executive Director of the Brandywine Conservancy and Brandywine River Museum
who said in addition to preserving art, “… I hope to see the Brandywine
Conservancy preserve enough additional open space in the Brandywine watershed
to assure adequate supplies of healthy drinking water and to secure for
posterity the remaining open spaces of the Brandywine Battlefield.”

And Sue
Minarchi, new president of the 8-room Sanderson Museum on Creek Road, now
undergoing major restoration said, “Over the next ten years, the Sanderson
Museum will continue revitalization toward becoming a most unique
small museum experience.  We look
forward to sharing our wonderful collection of [Brandywine Valley] art and
historic artifacts with the residents and visitors to our beautiful area so
that they may share a glimpse of history as seen through one man's eyes.”  

Summing it up for our whole
community, Duff added, “I hope to see all residents of Chadds Ford and the
Brandywine Valley understand and appreciate the extraordinary role this region
has played in American history and traditions. It is for these purposes that
many people and organizations that have worked together must continue to do so
through the next decade and beyond.”

History, art, land and
preservation. To borrow a line from “High School Musical”… “We’re all in this
together”… and Chadds Ford, the future is here.