Turning a corner
It's Saturday, friends, and I'm ever so glad to be in weekend mode. Hope you'll get to enjoy some downtime, too.
I just returned Thursday from a four day trip to the Cleveland, Ohio area for some training for my new job. Met some interesting people, but what stuck with me the most in two trips into the middle of the city there was the extent of rundown or even abandoned commercial and residential structures. Boarded up, beaten down, depressing scenery, block after block of it.
To be fair, Lexington has that, too, but the scale is so different in a city the size of Cleveland. I found the same in the Detroit, Michigan area, at least in parts of it, during frequent travels there late last year and early this year. But it's still something that takes me by surprise, and then leaves me somewhat depressed for those affected by it.
I watched a documentary a while back that spent some of its running time addressing the water situation in Flint, Michigan. I'm sure you're somewhat familiar with the circumstances--the state ordered the city to switch water supplies, from that which feed the Detroit area to another, less safe, source. The result has been a high concentration of lead in the drinking water there, leading to developmental disabilities to children and others. And it appears that the majority of pipes throughout the city are damaged, including those in homes and apartments.
The documentary ran through the chronology of all of this but pointed out, quite correctly, that people are literally trapped there. Let's say you and your spouse have two children, and you want to get your family out. Well, if you own a home, you pretty much have to sell that home before you can leave and resettle in another community. But think--who's coming to Flint? Who's going to buy that house?
Similar predicaments exist for those in cities where large employers have closed plants, and I feel for them.
But along with the despair that's bound to accompany the very idea of living somewhere like the squalid inner cities I've mentioned, there are pockets of hope. Ordinary people doing for each other, helping those who need it most. We don't get to see much of that just passing through, but it's there. For instance, here in Lexington, there's a woman who's devoted herself to the homeless for well over thirty years, working for a Catholic-based agency. The numbers served have grown, and she has continued to ensure that additional resources are identified and services have kept up. Her agency now resides in a much larger space and the community is much the better for having her agency here.
I'll mention one more organization here, and I mean HERE. There's a mission that was founded here in Lexington and is run by local people, with one couple spearheading the entire effort. All of the money raised stays HERE. My wife and I are pleased to contribute in a small way to their good work throughout the year.
I hesitate to sound like Pollyanna here, that there's always a silver lining in every dark cloud, but if you're being followed by one of those clouds, you come to count on those silver linings.
I just returned Thursday from a four day trip to the Cleveland, Ohio area for some training for my new job. Met some interesting people, but what stuck with me the most in two trips into the middle of the city there was the extent of rundown or even abandoned commercial and residential structures. Boarded up, beaten down, depressing scenery, block after block of it.
To be fair, Lexington has that, too, but the scale is so different in a city the size of Cleveland. I found the same in the Detroit, Michigan area, at least in parts of it, during frequent travels there late last year and early this year. But it's still something that takes me by surprise, and then leaves me somewhat depressed for those affected by it.
I watched a documentary a while back that spent some of its running time addressing the water situation in Flint, Michigan. I'm sure you're somewhat familiar with the circumstances--the state ordered the city to switch water supplies, from that which feed the Detroit area to another, less safe, source. The result has been a high concentration of lead in the drinking water there, leading to developmental disabilities to children and others. And it appears that the majority of pipes throughout the city are damaged, including those in homes and apartments.
The documentary ran through the chronology of all of this but pointed out, quite correctly, that people are literally trapped there. Let's say you and your spouse have two children, and you want to get your family out. Well, if you own a home, you pretty much have to sell that home before you can leave and resettle in another community. But think--who's coming to Flint? Who's going to buy that house?
Similar predicaments exist for those in cities where large employers have closed plants, and I feel for them.
But along with the despair that's bound to accompany the very idea of living somewhere like the squalid inner cities I've mentioned, there are pockets of hope. Ordinary people doing for each other, helping those who need it most. We don't get to see much of that just passing through, but it's there. For instance, here in Lexington, there's a woman who's devoted herself to the homeless for well over thirty years, working for a Catholic-based agency. The numbers served have grown, and she has continued to ensure that additional resources are identified and services have kept up. Her agency now resides in a much larger space and the community is much the better for having her agency here.
I'll mention one more organization here, and I mean HERE. There's a mission that was founded here in Lexington and is run by local people, with one couple spearheading the entire effort. All of the money raised stays HERE. My wife and I are pleased to contribute in a small way to their good work throughout the year.
I hesitate to sound like Pollyanna here, that there's always a silver lining in every dark cloud, but if you're being followed by one of those clouds, you come to count on those silver linings.
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