Another Block Faces The Wrecking Ball

When the Catholic Diocese was recently destroyed, to make way for "development", I was upset, but my anger was tempered by the thought that they had built on a pagan sacred site, and that the land would be temporarily returned to a "more natural state". I'm relatively sure that eventually the site will be sold to make way for one strip mall or another and that a Pawn America, or other payday loan store will pop up there like a mushroom, but until then, we can delight in the open space and walk the land in honor and respect for it's inherent Spirit. In all my years, I have felt the energy inherent in that site. High ground always holds a special place in the hearts of spiritual seekers and the proximity to two ravines and the largest river in the area surely held great cache' with ancient locals. I always harbored dreams of reclaiming the area as a spiritual center that I have recognized since childhood.

Today, the destruction of another block in historic downtown Green Bay came to my attention. Just one long block from a locally owned pharmacy, CVS is planning to build one of their horribly ugly retail establishments. The half-dozen or so small, family-owned businesses as well as a few residential buildings will succumb to the heavy hand of "progress". The pharmacy that used to be in that location served our community for generations and was one of the few places that you could still find old medicine chest stand-bys like oil of clove, salicylic acid plasters, blackberry balsam and coal-tar salve. On the same block was a sporting goods store that figured into the lives of nearly every child raised around these parts. Many thousands of bikes were bought and repaired there and the skate sharpening services alone brought smiles to countless faces bordered by rosy cheeks. Just around the corner from these Green Bay Landmarks, were shops that sold tires, junk, beers and booze. After a twenty-four hour odyssey on my twenty-first birthday that started in St. Louis, Missouri, I finally found a place to get a beer, nestled between Wino "Whitney" Park and the drug store. The neighborhood has had it's value extracted by the richest among us for years and apparently is no longer suitable as a refuge for the poorest among us either.

It seems odd that one of the first cities in the Midwest would be so completely oblivious to it's own history. The most liveable part of our downtown has been systematically stripped of it's grocery stores, small businesses, character and consequently it's people. The things and folks that made our city great have been replaced by bankrupt malls, ugly monolithic buildings and massive debt ridden "development". Most sadly, this is not a unique story. Thousands of cities across our once great nation have succumbed to a similar plight. It seems that with the current atmosphere of in-fighting amongst fictitious "groups" and the gloom and doom "newscasters" purveying their lies and deception on all sides, we may never recover our cities. Lust amongst our politicians for more revenue has blinded them to budgetary realities that individuals understand all too well. A penny saved is truly a penny earned. Chasing after imagined tax revenues has driven our leaders to so many bad decisions that admitting the fallacy would surely require a loss of face for many. We can put lipstick on a pig, as the saying goes, but it can't possibly hide the pork and corpulent leaders whose corruption has led to the selling out of our communities.

I don't know where we will be when our neighborhoods have all vanished. I'm sure that it won't be as happy or secure a place as where I had the luxury of growing up. When we are gone, who will speak for good sense, compassion and equity? When we were children, and for generations back through human history, we knew where we were at all times. We knew right from wrong and if we forgot, there were always neighbors who could set us straight. Will our children know where they are headed if they cannot find any evidence of where they have come from? Will their children care if there is no sense of community? When every city looks the same, will individualism cease to have meaning? How will future generations express a sense of self when there is no distinction between Wichita and West Chester, San Sebastian and San Mateo and between Toronto and Tuskegee? Only time will tell. Let's hope that we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Interested in saving a bit of history? Let me know and we can make a plan together.