Watching a movie can often bring an interesting reflection and viewpoint to life. One of my favorite fictional movies was the 1985 blockbuster “Back to the Future.” Actor Michael J. Fox ( Marty McFly) is thrown back into the '50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) goes awry. Traveling through time in a modified DeLorean car, Marty encounters young versions of his parents and must make sure that they fall in love, or he'll cease to exist. We can all clearly see whatever has shaped the past has a dramatic impact on the future. I woefully report I see many similarities in the theme of this science fiction movie and KINGMAN’S REAL LIFE CULTURE past and present.
The film was set in 1950, an era 75 years ago, about the same time the City of Kingman’s founding fathers had secured an unbreakable stronghold on Kingman’s government and the quality of life and control over the average common man.
Over time, you have all repeatedly read the long list of issues and concerns of the Kingman people in the local newspapers and on social media. Just to mention a few: Deathly, almost criminal lack of medical care; sustainability of water and electricity; rising prices for sewer and trash as well. Bumpy substandard roads, traffic gridlock, and urban density are in lockstep with UNCONTROLLED GROWTH on the back of a fragile and failing CORE INFRASTRUCTURE.
In 2025, the Kingman Establishment stronghold is painfully more apparent than ever, and it is very clear that when we GO back to their stronghold, instead of LOOKING forward to our future, we have gone awry. The time is overdue to end this insidious “space/time” continuum that has destroyed our city.
Kingman MUST NO LONGER keep making the same mistake of going BACK to shape the FUTURE. The city and the city council can no longer be a fictional daydreaming time-traveling machine run by economically crazed scientists experimenting with our quality of life and our social growth.
Just as Marty and Doc in the film, Kingman and its people are in an imminent crisis and caught in the malfunction of the flux capacitor and time circuits. We need city leaders who will listen and respond to the issues and the concerns of the people. We do not need to propagate the old ways of the Establishment in passing infrastructure costs onto the people instead of the developers and the builders.
It doesn’t take an eccentric scientist to conclude we must look at the past in retrospect and make the necessary changes for our future. Just like the DeLorean time-traveling machine in the movie, the city leaders are going 88 mph trying to get fusion. Big promises are always made with little substance but with an abundance of excuses and double talk. I can’t say the city leaders have bad intentions, but their illegitimate economic plan is a blank check from you, the people, for dis- aster. You can follow the money right back to the future.
There is no doubt the city knows the people are upset and angry, and their Public Relations is falling short. Promotional gimmicks such as carefully designed surveys have circulated but do not address the issues face-to-face directly with the people. In the face of all the public ire over our failing infrastructure, the city has released notices of probable tax increases, meaning the people will pay more and more for less and less, business as usual. We are all watching the town clock tick, just like in the movie, and the tension is up.
The quality of life of the people of Kingman is not fiction, and we do not exist on a fictional timeline. BACK TO THE FUTURE means we must elect new leadership in Kingman, no matter what has happened in the past. When we look BACK, we see how Kingman’s problems were created, but if we look like time travelers to the FUTURE, we see how to balance growth with infrastructure, preserving the quality of life for all. Our future cannot be left awry or just like Marty McFly, we could cease to exist.
Respectfully, Elliot Chalew
Please join my group CAUSE (Citizens Against Uncontrolled Social Environment )
chalew@gmail.com