So this morning Mrs. O and I took a stroll around the walking trail at Wilson Park. After the last few days, talk of gangs, the demise of GC etc.... I was really feeling down.
Then, the walk. I walked that park twice and as I passed different parts it occured to me that much of GC is still the same. My family picnicked at the shelter by the airplane many times. My kids played sports on some of the diamonds that have been there since I was a kid. Sure, there's a new pool, my old Diamond 8 is now know as Sykes Field but the main body of the park is still a great feature to our town.
As we walked around the end of State Street I looked over and saw good old GCHS. Such a different place than when I went there. The new front that was the back, the nice looking Hall of Fame area that people like Nellie Hagnauer and Babe Champion worked for. The beautiful football and baseball stadiums.
The beautiful old homes on the 27th street median with their majestic old style archiecture. All of them with a story of their original owners tucked inside the walls.
I began to feel good again about this old berg. Yeah, we've fallen on some hard times over the last dozen or so years. We've seen business bail, schools close and yes, some of the element that brought our latest black eye have taken over areas of our town.
But look around folks. If you've been here for decades like I have, don't you still feel a little of that hometown pride? Don't you feel when you see the improved areas of the park, the schools, the shopping center that there is still a ray of hope? I do.
I have a dear friend in Collinsville. He speaks of gang activity, drugs, theft etc... I read about cops in E'ville breaking the law and I think, this isn't a GC problem. This is a societal problem, a breakdown of the simple moral values that made this great nation.
So here's the main point of my rant. Let's take our town back. I encourage each and everyone of you to get to know your neighbors. Look out for each other. If you see a bad element, get on the phone with the cops and report their activity. You think you see a drug deal? Report it. If we can make life for these morons uncomfortable enough, maybe they'll move on.
Yeah, it's pie in the sky thinking but what do we have left if we let our community die? Do we allow it to deteriorate to a point where it's not worth anything? Do we allow the memories of our children's childhood to be eliminated by a bunch of drug dealing, wefare sucking, low life S.O.B.'s? I say hell no. I'm going to start driving around for an hour every day. I'm going to look for the kind of activity we don't want here and I'm going to make some calls.
It's my town and I'm not going to take it anymore. There's too much of my life here and my life is worth something.
on October 8, 2013, 9:39 pm