The tacked-on Plan for Southwest Virginia in Gillespie’s binder further demonstrates the indifference with which we’ve become all too familiar.

After the meeting, we perused the 10 black-and-white pages tailored with our region in mind. That quickly turned to surprise with the discovery of recycling: The Southwest Virginia plan wasn’t designed specifically for Southwest Virginia at all. Instead, a compilation of points from the previous 19 policies filled those pages, obviously chosen because of their potential regional relevance or reattributed relevance with additions like “in the Southwest Virginia region.” Consider the “Jobs and Economic Growth” section, which, aside from a few customized points like opening the Clinch River State Park, could easily substitute as any regional plan in the commonwealth. Unlike the previous two inches of ink-saturated heavyweight paper, this plan wasn’t even in color — a petty point, yes, but illustrative of the last-minute decision for this plan and extraneous afterthought given to us.