the last word from ashland
by request, here’s the last column i wrote for the Times-Gazette.
Waldman: Ashland’s progress impeded by looking back
George Willard is finally escaping Winesburg.
If you’ve read Sherwood Anderson’s famous novel, “Winesburg, Ohio,” you know what I’m talking about. In the last chapter, Willard, the local boy who works at his hometown newspaper, realizes he has to skip town to find a better life.
In a similar fashion, I, Andrew Waldman, longtime Ashland resident, am jumping on a train to better things.
But I hope this isn’t my final chapter with this place. Over my still short life and career working in Ashland, I’ve been dizzied by the amount of things I’ve learned about Ashland as a reporter that I didn’t know as a young, dumb kid.
And much like the heartbreaking stories told by the characters that populate Anderson’s “Winesburg” (actually based upon the city of Clyde, which isn’t far from here), Ashland has its share of disheartening stories to share, many of which still trouble me. During my time at the T-G, I found many secret catacombs in the community I never imagined existed. A few examples:
n There is a homeless problem in Ashland, and it’s neatly tucked away in shadows while we consistently proclaim Ashland is “Someplace Special.”
n More than a thousand jobs had left town over the last decade and local leaders have done little more than shrug or create opportunities for out-of-town retailers to come in and make a quick buck.
n The Ashland City School District has substandard, old, dingy, dark school buildings (reference: Ashland Middle School, which was old 30 years ago), but laypeople in the community advocate saving them even while educational experts stress they be heavily renovated or replaced.
But it’s not all bad, and this isn’t meant to be the most depressing goodbye column ever. I saw a lot of things that give me hope for the future.
I remember labor leader Barb Phillips’ never-ending passion to be a voice for those who work hard but didn’t get the health care or pay they need to survive.
There was Career Center Superintendent Mike McDaniel’s dream of a bioscience tech program that came to fruition after years of work.
And I won’t forget Ashland City Schools board member Bob Hill, who, for whatever reason, decided one day that he’d like to help in schools and ended up devoting most of his retirement to helping students learn to read and be more confident about themselves.
The only problem with these glimmers of hope is the fact that they aren’t going to be around forever, and the young generation is quickly leaving town or falling into apathy as conditions worsen.
We’re losing George Willards by the score each year. That needs to stop.
The solution: We need to teach more of our youngsters entrepreneurial skills and remind them about the importance of listening and learning about the community around them. We need to take action, not talk about “quality initiatives” and “data-driven decision making.” It’s too late to waste time on things like that.
People like to remember what Ashland used to be like: a vibrant downtown, plenty of good paying jobs and things to do. Let’s keep those memories in our mind like postcards, and not reference points of how we want this place to be. Let’s look to the future and imagine a brand-new place, not something we used to know.
That’s the way to make Ashland really special.
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good words man. I feel just about the same way.
Here’s to leaving, to come back some-day
Comment by cory — November 13, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
So, I was thinking about this — the flight of the youth from Ohio — and I wonder if it would be interesting to talk to kids from Ohio after they leave, and ask them about their feelings for Ohio once they’ve gone. Do they feel a nostalgia for it? Do they want to go back? Did they want to stay, but had to leave to find work?
I find it interesting, because it seems that wherever we all go, we’re finding factions of other Ohioans, if not midwesterners, where we land. Could be good.
Comment by cory — November 20, 2008 @ 9:27 am
yeah, I think I understand what you’re saying. I certainly would have preferred to stay in Ohio, considering the cost of living and relative accessability of other services. I think there are a lot of people that would like to go back. I’ve actually met a few of them here on the east coast that have moved back or really want to once they have the experience to do so.
It makes sense that we see so many Ohioans that going elsewhere for jobs: there are a lot of Ohioans out there, and Ohio has a ton of post-secondary educational insitutions that export students. I would assume as the economy continues to shrink in the state we’ll see more and more youth flight. Sad, but true.
Comment by andrew — November 21, 2008 @ 2:34 pm