The Pittsburgh region needs a new vision. Now is the time to ask ourselves deeper questions about who we are, who we want to become and what we want to stand for in the world.

These are difficult questions to address when the world and our country's place in it is changing so rapidly.

As we look around the globe, while we see many positive developments from globalization, we can see many negative developments as well. It can be exciting, confusing and scary at the same time. While we cannot control everything that will happen at the national and international levels, we can control our collective reactions to these events that can make a positive difference in lives of our local people and the rest of the world.

We are beginning to understand the complex interrelationships of globalization. We have been using a competitive economic system based on a model fueled by infinite consumption, while we are living in a finite global system with limited regeneration capacities.

Our economic system of consumption is colliding head-on with conservation. Strains are being felt at all levels of society and government as well as the charitable systems trying to cope with the consequences of dwindling resources. We are realizing that we can no longer simply say that economic growth equals quality of life. They are related, but how we decide to balance the two will have a profound impact on our region and the world.

As world trade barriers continue to come down, such market regions as Pittsburgh are free to trade with anyone in the world.

As a region, we can now begin to think about economic concepts such as imports vs. exports, trade balances, GDP, etc. -- concepts that only an entire country would have given thought to in the past.

To seriously evaluate this, we need to conduct a new form of comprehensive asset mapping dealing with both our natural and human capital resources.

We also can begin to consider other items such as who we want to trade with based on human rights or environmental issues as determined by what our region stands for.

Do we really want profit margins, a very simple way of making decisions, to decide our course of action?

While we might be able to save a few dollars trading with a country or region that disregards environmental standards, do we really want to, given what we now understand about the true cost to life and global sustainability?

To address these issues, we must re-evaluate our region's mission.

It is a mission that has not changed in decades. As a result of the economic devastation that we went through just a generation ago, our primary purpose, from both a political and community perspective, has been growth.

We have used our common resources to fuel as much economic growth as possible. The simple model that higher growth equals a higher quality of life is not only passé, but also incorrect.

Many metropolitan regions have grown beyond their level of self-sustainability and their future is heavily dependent upon resources, most importantly food and water, from outside sources.

Concepts such as buying locally, manufacturing locally and producing locally are beginning to take hold and gain momentum, but for many regions in the United States, the options are limited.

Not only can buying locally greatly expand economic impact and reduce unproductive social subsidies, but it also is one of the best ways for our region to reduce its carbon footprint and contribute to global sustainability.

Perhaps now, in postmodern times, Pittsburgh can be the first region in the United States and in the world to become a new model for third-millennium, autonomous global regions; a model that shows the world how a metro region can sustain itself and its population in a prosperous way that can contribute to the global community, not destroy it.

The more we can become less dependent upon the fragile global economic and food grid, the more we can support it.

Perhaps our region can become a place where we measure success by how happy and healthy people are, not how much we can consume.

It is the same dream our country was founded on -- a dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It was based on certain inalienable rights and a belief about the purpose of life.

It was based on higher ideals about the purpose of living together in communities, and the role of our collective actions called government to achieve them.

The American dream was never about competing against each other to get as much as each person or region can individually at the expense of everyone else. It focused on improving the quality of life, not on quantity.

This is about our evolution as a society that will require participation by all sectors of our communities -- the spiritual, social, industrial, educational, governmental, etc. acting consciously in union.

As we celebrate our 250 years of experience and look back at what worked and what did not work, let us be resolved to apply this wisdom and work together to develop a new vision for our region, set it in action as an example for others to follow, and share it with the rest of the world.