It's really a shame, you know. This town could be a city if it really tried hard enough. I'm not the man to do it though. I never have been. I've just lived here too long.
Perhaps everyone feels that way?
And we do an awful lot of talking in this town and not nearly enough doing. We do some great things, but we're always falling just short of doing the right thing. You know what I mean?
Too many people live here. Too many people want to hurt people here.
It's a shame.
Every time I turn around, someone is dying. Someone is being taken to task by an ill-nurtured pitbull. Someone is abusing the financial assistance system. Someone's baby is having a baby between lunch hour and study hall. Someone is always running a red light and cranking down inside a pothole. Note - I keep asking the city about the potholes. No one wants to talk about that or the Illinois Road project.
I can't help it that it happens like this. I'm nice to people. I say good things. For some reason it doesn't translate between me and the doers around this town.
I'm not even sure I work here anymore. Now that I think of it, I was filling in for someone else for awhile.
Right?
*Sigh.
I think what frustrates me most here is that everyone is distracted by garbage. No one says anything meaningful anymore. It's all surface and babble and teenage antics in the most inappropriate places. Have you ever been to The River? They don't card there. Piere's makes me nervous. Why talk when you can bump up against someone for three minutes of drum beats?
I'm getting too old for this. I just want to have a responsible, intellectual conversation with someone here. For a town filled with colleges, we sure are meaning-deprived. We have a lot of churches too.
Makes me worried you know. When the floods finally come and when there isn't a damn big enough, well...I just don't know. We're all too preoccupied with ourselves. I'm not sure we'll even see it coming.
And it's starting to rain. Again.
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