Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Charita Hits a Homer!

Charita Gosha hit a home run today with Closing of Rite Aid is Another Page in Neighborhood's Sad Saga about the destruction of a once vibrant area of Canton:

In any given community, when the number of poor and transient residents increases, and the number of homeowners and active voters declines, such neighborhoods tend to tumble to the bottom of a city’s priorities. Ailing and neglected neighborhoods can transform cities into “doughnuts.”

In the minds of many people, the obvious solution is jobs. It certainly can’t be denied that the factories and plants that once offered a future and a way into middle-class respectability helped keep this city awash in people and tax revenue.

But what’s happened to the Belden Avenue area over the last 20 years goes deeper than that. In the past, people didn’t use their poverty or unemployment as an excuse to debase themselves or their grandmothers’ neighborhoods.

This is the kind of truth in writing that should be cherished in Canton by Rep readers. Unfortunately, due to the naracissistic disruptive games of one person, comments have been disabled on the commentary. We can't blame the Rep, though (exactly) for cutting off the public. Who wants to trek through last weekend's moral swamp again?

I Hate Canton, however, would like to thank Charita for keeping the faith. You've got lots of fans and friends.

3 comments:

mary v parker said...

Great write up about Charita, She's very deserving of some kind words. She's a great, witty writer, and the toss of a little sarcasm in the bowl never hurt anything. Unfortunately, her article was pulled before I could even read it or the juicy comments that I'm sure followed.

I want to touch on something here that I never got around to on the Rep article about the closing of the Rite Aid, but more so about the poverty in that area.

I hear people say over and over that poverty is no excuse for crime, and that other generations have gone through hard financial times without resorting to crime. That's not altogether true. Past generations did resort to crime when times got hard. They stole, they robbed, (Some of the best and most famous bank robbers come from the past generations) They had speak-easy's, they had 'houses of ill repute'. They had people running White Lightening all over the country like they run the drugs today. They started the illegal numbers games, like todays lottery. AND, They'd kill you at the drop of a hat in those days too. If you dare to come into 'their territory' you'd be dealt with in a wonderful fashion; you'd be mowed down with a machine gun, and whoever was with you at the time, they had to go to. Some of the biggest crooks were found in your friendly neighborhood POLICE DEPARTMENT! Most of them were on the take. Hey, times were hard! Poverty does breed crime, and it's not just with this generation. It was never limited to one race or culture either. You should have seen some of the names on those crime reports and police blotters. It sure wasn't 'Jones' (or Parker)

mary said...

I also liked Charita's article about Obama and Cheny. The bigot and racist remarks were uncalled for. Who the heck would want Cheny for a relative?? I sure wouldn't, and it has nothing to do with his being White. I wouldn't want him related to me if he was mauve, and that's my favorite color.

Anonymous said...

I'm a white guy, and I wouldn't want to have Dick Cheney as a relative either. Not that there's anything wrong with being related to a goofball. Everyone has one or two in the family. I just wouldn't want to have him over to my house, drinking all my beer because he doesn't have to pay for it, getting hammered and then shooting at passing cars.