This morning, I forgot to bring my MP3 player when I went to work out at the Davis Family YMCA. During my forty-minutes on the treadmill, in my line of vision was a bright yellow sign with one word…RESPECT. I found myself pondering respect and my community, my beloved hometown.
It is easy to disrespect Youngstown with its rusted out steel mills and general blight. And yet, it is too easy to disrespect Youngstown, and in fact, doing so has become a tiresome ritual of the worn down and often bitter long-time residents who have seen their city die, who have packed their children to move away, who have heard promise after promise of better days to come, who have stopped listening (out of self-preservation, I believe) to boosterism from inspired young people.
But I truly believe that a new time has come in Youngstown; I’ve heard, seen, and felt a new passion unlike any I’ve experienced in all of my time as a Youngstown (and its suburbs) resident. Many, many bright and talented people are poised to lead this city through its renaissance.
But this renaissance cannot begin, will not happen, without first a return to respect.
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AHA! I found you. I want to blogroll you but I don’t know how without compromising my identity! Im going to forward the link though if you are ok with it?