David M. Rubin, former dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, is a regular columnist for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Email him at dmrubin@syr.edu.

The State Fair, Winterfest, Lights on the Lake, Syracuse University basketball, United Way, Syracuse Nationals Classic Cars ... Our small community of 400,000 hugs tight to its traditions, year after year. They provide the rhythm to our civic culture. While "change" is not exactly a profanity in Onondaga County, we don't embrace it. We are a deeply conservative community.

So when Consensus released its preliminary report addressing how government consolidation might be a good thing for the community, the negative reaction has been fierce and, sadly, all too predictable.

The choirs opposing change pulled out their old hymnals and started singing the familiar songs. The Suburban Choir won't "bail out" Syracuse or have anything to do with its violent schools, leaky water pipes, crime or political class. The money saved from consolidation, they sing, won't lower taxes appreciably. They like their government small, responsive and expensive. They want their schools mostly white. They want space and grass.

The City Choir sings that Consensus is just a power grab by the suburbs to strip political influence from Syracuse residents. This is truly puzzling because the residents of the city haven't fared well in the current power structure, so why defend it? Further, Consensus did not even propose a new form of representative government to oppose, but conspiracy theories flourish nonetheless.

So here we are already. The smart money would bet against Consensus. It will die the same quiet death as did similar proposals in decades past.

But before we sing a funeral dirge for Consensus and reinforce our reputation for conservatism, look at the report through a different lens. It is not a blueprint for anything. It is a laudable effort to blast this community out of the past. It suggests how life for all might be better if we considered some changes in how we organize public life.

If you want to attack Consensus, then at least explain why you are willing to live with the reality suggested below:

• Syracuse ranks 95th out of the 100 largest cities in economic growth over the past five years;

• While the suburbs continue to sprawl, the overall population of our county is stagnant;

• We have no comprehensive land use policy because we have no government entity to plan and enforce it;

• Twenty of our 35 towns and villages could be bankrupt in the next decade;

• We pay among the highest combined property and school taxes in the nation;

• Developers whipsaw us for tax breaks by pitting city and county industrial development agencies against each other;

• We support 57 fire districts, each purchasing its own equipment and building its own palatial firehouse;

• We fund Mayberry-like town and village police departments;

• To sustain our 1950s fantasy of small-town America, we pay elected officials to administer political entities that should be neighborhoods, not independent towns and villages;

• To further that small-town fantasy, we keep on life support tiny school districts with fewer than a thousand students, each with its own school board, superintendent, principals, assistant principals, nurses, bookkeepers and other staff;

• We fund 19 town and nine village courts, most of which run at a deficit, rather than create an efficient, consolidated, cost-effective court system;

Finally, if we dismiss Consensus out of hand, we could forfeit millions of dollars Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised to our area -- $25 million, to be specific -- to help achieve some government consolidation. He hates Syracuse already. Do we really want to face the mighty wrath of a Cuomo scorned if we drop the consolidation ball and tell him to buzz off?

Reject Consensus if you must, but in your public comments at least address why we should preserve these specific relics of 19th and mid-20th century life and government. Don't sing the same old hymns.

Proponents of Consensus should discuss why we ought not fear change. Explain how consolidation helped other cities grow economically. Paint a picture of what Onondaga County could become, then contrast that with what it will be like if trends in population, taxation and economic stagnation continue. Ask who wants to live in such a bleak environment? Will it be only those who cannot leave?

Proponents of Consensus should explain why healthy and attractive suburbs require a healthy city of Syracuse. Opponents reject this view.

Proponents of Consensus should explain why, if we don't embrace change, it will become difficult for Syracuse University, the hospitals and our businesses to attract top-notch employees, and why we will never recruit the bright young people who are necessary to our future.

The deeper message of Consensus is that the prosperous parts of the United States embrace change. We do not. We think we can swim against the economic and demographic tides. We cannot. Consensus deserves a serious public discussion of how to change. Surely we can agree on some measures worth adopting, can't we?