“What if they gave a war and nobody came?” is the title of a 2011 song by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, as well as the title of a 1970 American drama-comedy feature film.

“If you build it, they will come” is a famous quote from the 1989 Kevin Costner baseball movie, “Field of Dreams.”

Tuesday’s citizen input meeting in front of the Laurinburg City Council could adopt either of those, depending on how you view the fact that a total of eight people showed up.

EIGHT.

The city has a population of roughly 15,000 residents, which means Tuesday’s meeting attracted something around 0.5%.

Those who did come out should be applauded. What they had to say was thoughtful, respectful and constructive — and the City Council was both attentive and interested in those voices.

But what does it say that such a slim number bothered to attend?

The City Council, as it does every year at about this time, opens its ears to the concerns, questions and suggestions from the community as it turns its attention to the upcoming fiscal-year budget. These things can typically go either way — a quiet but interested small gathering could come, or there could be a large vociferous throng.

In essence, the city “gave a war” and waited to see who might come.

In the big picture, nobody did.

The city also could be said to have wanted to “build it” — offering residents the chance to be partners in the direction city will go and how its revenues will be spent. Few chose to.

While it would be easy to chastise the community for not being interested in city business and how residents’ money will be spent, that may not be the best assumption to settle on.

Instead, we will take a different tact.

Registered voters in the city had a huge say in November about what direction they want Laurinburg to take. They hired a new mayor in Jim Willis, a new councilman in Don Rainer and re-elected an incumbent councilwoman in Mary Jo Adams. That vote established a new and far more positive atmosphere within the City Council Chambers that had been void for at least the past four years.

And so far, despite being just three months into the new terms, the City Council has given residents no reason to think their best interests aren’t at the forefront going forward.

The city could have been anticipating a “war,” or it could have begun plans to “build it” — either way, Tuesday’s really slim turnout could just be another vote of confidence in the city’s future. However, it would be naive to think that, since there was no “war,” everything is rosy. So the “building” must continue.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”