Approximately 30 community leaders gathered this week to start doing something all too rare in Natchez — talking about where we’d like to go as a community, not just where we’ve been.

From my seat at the Alcorn State University’s School of Business in Natchez this week, two things occurred to me.

First, our community — like many others — is far better off than most communities our size in the state. We have more positives than most, but we probably have more CAVE people than some communities, too — more on them later.

Second, the lack of elected political leaders in attendance was startling at first, but not surprising.

On day one of the Your Town workshop, only two elected officials were seated in the audience — Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton and Adams County Supervisor Darryl Grennell.

The other faces in the room belonged to community, business and civic leaders, as well as a few private citizens.

The goal of the day was simple: Create plans that would improve the community.

At first the lack of elected faces was a source of aggravation.

In some ways, wouldn’t life be easier if government just handled everything a community needed and the rest of us could just go about our business?

If that were the case, civic groups, and certainly workshops such as the Your Town one, wouldn’t be necessary. The government would simply make sure all the things that are needed were covered.

The theory might seem good on paper, but in practice it quickly dissolves.

Most of the logical among us know that government is extremely limited in its capabilities — and it should be.

Less government is generally better government.

But it is frustrating for those of us who pay taxes to stand by quietly when the government drops the ball.

The fact is, however, the government cannot do all of the things we need it to do.

If you look around our community, you’ll see some excellent examples of the private sector working well and actually leading the government, either by direct example or by simply picking up the ball and running.

Natchez Inc. is an example of a public-private partnership in which the business sector leads the governmental partners.

The recreation effort is also a grassroots movement in which private citizens clearly showed the public sector just how wanted recreation is and also is providing information about how accessible a revamped recreation complex could be.

Another example is the movement that founded the Community Alliance and led to the creation of the Natchez Trails project.

The public can and should lead the government — especially if the intention is to get things done quickly and efficiently.

The room at the Your Town workshop was a room filled with doers.

The organizers, however, warned the group not be swayed by the CAVE people that exist in every community.

“What’s a CAVE person?” you might ask. Simple: Citizens Against Virtually Everything. These are the folks quick to shoot down any new idea.

If the community begins to stop letting the CAVE folks hog the conversation and realizes the government will not handle things for us, is there any limit to how much we might improve in our community?

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