After spending thousands of dollars on outside expert opinions, consultants and studies, perhaps Natchez’s economic development travails could have been solved by a comic strip.

Nearly 40 years ago, cartoonist Walt Kelly penned a special Earth Day edition of his Pogo comic.

The kicker line said it all:

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Kelly’s phrase was uttered in passing Friday morning just before the public release of a Boyette Strategic Advisors’ economic development study.

The mood before the meeting seemed slightly cynical. Another high-priced study and another plan that will sit on the shelf for years.

That seemed to be the thoughts of at least a few of the people there, some of whom stood up to express that cynical view publicly.

The majority of the business community can agree on what the problems with our past economic development efforts have been.

But the question has always been: How can we help?

Looking into the past isn’t going to help us much. And even the most cynical people realize that doing nothing on economic development is not an option.

The world is simply too competitive now to sit on our hands and wait for business to come knocking. It doesn’t happen that way, never has.

In recent years, our community’s conventional wisdom has been that economic development is the job of government.

That single, flawed thought has crippled our efforts.

So for years, dozens of our area’s best and brightest business minds simply sat on the sidelines either because they were never asked to help or because they didn’t know how they could help.

As a community, we allowed less-than-ideal people be appointed to the EDA board, then we hired less-than-ideal executive directors and then didn’t support any of the above. It was simply someone else’s watch, not the business community’s.

That may be about to change — and it may not be a minute too soon.

The Boyette study recommends creating a privately funded agency that would have a representative on the economic development agency’s board. That makes sense — a lot of sense.

That would get the business community actively engaged in economic development and allow them to provide a level of real-world accountability that has been lacking.

The business community should be leading the charge to bring new businesses to our community.

One of the staggering statistics in the Boyette study was a population projection for both Natchez and Adams County, comparing current population estimates with those five years out.

By 2014, their estimates show Adams County will lose 3,020 residents. If the estimate is correct, 50 people will leave the area each month for the next five years.

No one knows what the future holds, but if the estimate is true — or even partially true — our community absolutely must start working together with a common, focused goal. Otherwise Natchez will continue to shrink.

Natchez is an amazing place, known all over the world. But we’ve got to get down to business on economic development and it starts with the private sector showing interest and providing financial support.

All area business leaders — large and small — are invited to a meeting at 3 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 9, at the third floor meeting room at Regions Bank on Franklin Street. If you care about the future of Natchez’s growth, you’ll be there.

Yes, we have met the past’s enemy and he is us. But we’re also the future solution. It just takes working together.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.