This article was published in the March 20, 2009 edition of The Parkville (Missouri) Luminary.

A while back, I was visiting with Jehad Saleh, the proprietor of Café Cedar (if you haven't been to Café Cedar [ www.cafecedar.com ], and if you like Middle Eastern/Mediterranean cuisine, do yourself a favor and go there; not only is the food great, and not only can you get Sunday brunch from the engine compartment of an Austin Healy, but Saleh and his wife Fabiola will treat you as honored guests; they also serve hearty American fare too).

We were discussing the business environment, both within Parkville (Missouri) and in the larger sense. We were also discussing what makes for a working community. Saleh wasn't born in this country, but he's been here for years, and has been a business person in this area for a long time. His worldliness, to me, qualifies him for expert status in the subject matter.

We agreed that, generally speaking, there are characteristics common to those communities which can be characterized as healthy.

The universe of customers in a small town is finite, so business people should identify an inviting market niche in which to work, rather than trying to drive someone else out of business. In what passes for modern business ethics, it is accepted practice to aggressively try to stamp out potential competitors, but that doesn't mean it is a good practice. It instead embodies some of the worst of contemporary business philosophy, that characteristic which inevitably leads to mergers, acquisitions, and, ultimately (and, in a display of irony) a lack of competition.

Also, and in broad measure related to the previous point, the business community should try to unite and work together for the betterment not only of their businesses, but for the larger community too. A thriving town should have a thriving merchant class, and that should ideally be made up of locally-owned businesses which cooperate with one another. The presence of a strong divisive force can be enough to disrupt the cohesiveness the business community needs in order to be most successful. It instead engenders a corrosive distrust which soon permeates not only the business community but the town itself. Alternately, by cooperating, community merchants create a network of outlets of complementary goods and services.

Of course the other factor in the "successful community" equation is the population itself. The people of the community must support their friends and neighbors when possible. Sometimes, the big box merchants can provide the goods needed at a lower price. But what is included in that price? Bypassing local businesses can mean supporting large corporations which have no real stake in the community. They strip-mine the wealth out of a community, sending it elsewhere instead of keeping it circulating within the local area. We as purchasers of goods and services need to remember that when we are making buying decisions. Otherwise, by not behaving cooperatively, we potentially consign our neighbors to the unemployment line. By weakening our community, we ultimately weaken ourselves.

In the "bargain", we might lose the opportunity to gain the insight and wisdom as shared by our local luminaries. Like Jehad Saleh. That would be bad enough. But on top of that, we'd lose more. Where else in this community could you get great hummus, or Sunday brunch served from the engine compartment of an Austin Healy?