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wonderful things but we're not doing enough. And I know if we can help these young people who deserve opportunities in life and skills, we'll have a workforce that you won't believe. Mathur: In this country we have an education system that hasn't been touched essentially in 150 years, and it is still tailored for the era in which it was conceived. In Nevada, our success came with costs. Education wasn't essential to our success in our service-driven economy. Goodman: Every hotel room supports five people. And it's all blue-collar labor. Mathur: The culinary union grew like crazy. Construction grew like crazy. None of that required graduation, let alone college. There was no real demand to do better in education. Now there is, because economic diversification in the global, technological age in which we live is contingent upon healthcare, unmanned aerial vehicles, high-tech small-business innovation, utilities… pick it. We were stuck in the broken dinghy that was public education in America, and we made it worse for ourselves; our success caused us to subordinate our priorities. Fretwell: But the important thing is that we have people around us who saw the broken dinghy of public education 20 years ago, and they're leading this community now. Mathur: For the first time in the decades that I've lived here, what I am hearing is a growing choir of "we." We are getting realistic about the headwinds of poverty and embracing our diversity. I'm thinking the fact that we are a minority majority gives us a competitive edge in the global, multilingual society. Right? What I know about this town is we're entrepreneurial and embracing at our core. So the second that we get to a critical mass in "we" and we declare that we will do better, that's the ignition. Morton: My question is, who are we? Are we the one percent? Are we all in this together? I read yesterday that the bottom 20 percent of wage earners give more on a percentage basis than the top 20 percent of wage earners. Wrong! Wrong! Well, you know what? It's time for us all to wake up and say that the government doesn't have to be the answer. The economy is coming back, and now is the time for us all to invest ourselves personally. It doesn't have to be money. It can be time, energy, and brainpower. Mathur: In my household we talk in terms of delineating between a want and a fantasy. What I have said to my three teenagers is, "You should always want things. Aim high." Then the question becomes: "What are you willing to do?" Because if you're willing to do what it takes, every want can become an achievement. And in this community we want a lot. We want to be better than losing nearly a third of our kids before high school graduation. The question that hasn't fully been explored is: What are we willing to do? Because if we say we want and we're not willing to pay a little more, then it might be a fantasy. SUSTAINABILITY IN THE DESERT In many ways, Las Vegas is an impossible city. Can we continue to grow in a way that is sustainable? Are we doing enough? Morton: There's a long way to go, but children in our schools are talking about sustainability in ways that didn't exist 30 years ago. When this conversation becomes mundane and nobody would even think to leave their tap on while they brush their teeth, then we're there. I think there are great examples with the LEED-certified buildings in this community. There's a great example at the Springs Preserve right now, the Desert Sol solar house. It's entirely designed and built, down to every last piece of furniture, sustainably, by students at UNLV. They entered it in the solar house competition and took first place in the United States and second place in the world. It is a perfectly functional, normal home, stunning and beautiful, but it takes no energy. It is net zero. It's just a matter of really deciding that that is what is going to be done. The other piece is distributed solar in this community. MGM Resorts International has done a fantastic job of both doing and messaging sustainability. But it all comes back to the collective "we." If we collectively value the environment in which we live and our ability to breathe and our ability to even have water to bathe in and drink, we can make small changes to have a collective benefit. MOBILIZING IN A RECOVERING ECONOMY One thing the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health is doing in particu- lar is changing the perception of Las Vegas as a cultural, scientific, and medical inf luencer. What is next? Ruvo: One of the things that I've come to learn is that preventative care is going to be key. There could be no better place to do it than Las Vegas, where there's a lifestyle that we can offer both corporations and the private sector. We have great dining, we have the spas, we have great shows—all within a 10 -mile radius. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE DECADES THAT I'VE LIVED HERE, WHAT I AM HEARING IS A GROWING CHOIR OF 'WE.'" —PUNAM MATHUR Mathur: Bugsy Siegel said, "I'm going to put this casino up," and everybody said it couldn't be done. Fast-forward and Steve Wynn said, "I'm going to build the Mirage and it's going to be the most expensive property at $630 million." In between, Kirk Kerkorian said, "I'm going to put 2,000 hotel rooms on one street corner," and quickly the choirs were saying, "It can't be done," and that is Bally's as we know it today, originally the MGM. We are a commu- nity who, in the face of the "can't be done" attitude, does it—and that asset is very unique to this place. Now, part of what we discover, I hope, is clarity in our priorities and a bit more humility and a bit more recognition that we are inevitably connected one to another. In the span of 50 years on the Strip, we became an iconic, global brand. Why might it not be that 50 years from now, we're the place on the planet that's the beacon for wellness? It's completely delicious and ironic, I get it, but why not? V '' VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 131 126-131_V_F_Roundtable_MAYJUNE_14.indd 131 4/21/14 5:15 PM