I live in a small town. A town the size of most of the neighborhoods I’ve lived in. The town of La Junta is about 8,000 residents. The entire county is 18,855 people according to the 2010 census. Yes, I said the ENTIRE county. I believe there were nearly 12,000 students on campus when I attended Notre Dame. Not to mention on game day... HA! 80,000+ people. Most of us have been to a sold out baseball game in some major stadium... Such as Rockies Stadium which holds over 50,000 seats. Just to paint the picture in very clearly to my urban friends. 19,000 people isn’t a lot.
La Junta does not have a city planner on staff nor does it have a master plan for the city. It also has not updated the comprehensive plan since the 80’s and the county has no plan to invest the already red budget in creating a document that will sit on the shelf. Yes, I’m turning red with frustration... I can’t help it!!! So many of these small towns do not know how to use long range planning documents. No wonder we are in trouble!! Good Lord what do we do??
As a built environment, the town and neighborhoods are nicely gridded and feel good to walk around (even without sidewalks). There is a fantastic WPA park in the center of town too. A train station that actually still has an Amtrak commuter route to Santa Fe, San Diego and Chicago. Consequently, John and I are planning a trip back home by train just for that reason! However, the town layout is now punctuated by tear downs of many abandoned Victorian homes, replaced by ranch burgers... that ignore their alleys and have newly carved out driveways leading to the street. Yes, it makes me want to cry. I live in one of those ranch burgers. Sigh... as my heart rate continues to go up. Especially as NO ONE here seems to see this injustice!! "Progress is a driveway sweetie, what do we need alleys for?" Okay... I can’t breathe, have you all been locked in a closet for the past 20 years?? Don’t even get me started on the historic downtown structures that are slated for demolition and the grocery store that WAS downtown that I try NOT to drive by because again... my blood pressure... arrgghh!!!
This brings me to how you live in a town that was built in the old west, based on a tradition, yet shuns it for “progress”. Progress is defined as a town built on ranching and farming, that now shops freely at Wal-Mart. Progress is further defined by breaking the grid in favor of swirly-twirly streets and cul-de-sacs. Progress is tearing down the grocery store building next door so that the bank, visited by 10 maybe 12 people an hour that can park on the street can now park in a lot!! If I could switch banks I would!! If I had any damn choices in this town I would make them!! And I would let them know I switched banks because they created that parking lot too. Jerks. !@#$... (Insert Kunstler speak here...)
I know that I come from a different planet than those persons born and raised out here on the prairie. That I have a different perspective. Honestly, I swear it is that I know too damn much. I feel like Erin Brockovich or something! I feel like I need to tell everyone of the injustice around them. But I’m the newbie. What do I know?? What do I REALLY know?? I don’t know if I will be beaten into submission or just keep working to find other like minded people with a bigger cause to fight for. For now, I’m getting it out in this blog and it makes me feel better just to have said how I feel. Even if there isn’t anything I can do about it. I see potential in what is here... Others see potential in plowing down what is here and transforming it into another place they’ve seen. Because anything but here is better right? They’ve really been beaten down. This town has no self-esteem.
Fact remains that John and I are here because it is a town with a dedicated and proud police department. They work tirelessly to make decisions for people that cannot make them for themselves. Domestic violence, child abuse, animal abuse, rampant drugs, theft and gang fights are par for any evenings events. We feel like we want to make a difference here. No, we aren’t sure if we can... but we want to make a difference here. There are more than just built environment and economic issues here that have been like a vice down on the population. None of this is new, I can’t help but see that the drug use, poverty, generational apathy and job losses have been plaguing La Junta before the rest of the country felt even a pinch of an economic downturn.
Why not just walk away and give this to someone else? Because that’s not us. Damn if we don't love a challenge. If John and I aren’t doing something that can’t help someone else... we just feel unfulfilled. I forgot to mention John and I are 9 days apart in birthdays. Feb 16th (me) and Feb 25th (him) both of us 1973. Makes me believe just a little more in that horoscope hootenanny!! We are very much alike when it comes to community service, reaching out and just the desperate need to feel like you’re a bigger part of something.
So, for now I grab my keys, I put aside my cynical nature as much as possible to get in my car and drive to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, the reason the downtown market closed. The reason Safeway struggles. The reason the farm markets are scattered and dismantled. I know it and I vote for it with every dollar I spend there. I know that. I go to Safeway when I can. But it is very expensive. I desperately try to feed the family in the only way I know how, healthy veggies that can rarely be found. Organic meat and produce that should be on every shelf is no where in sight. I can hear the gasps... I know. Rebekah drives to the grocery store (Wal-Mart no less) and she is eating food that isn’t organic and hasn’t burst into flames? Yeah, I've been like the phoenix... I still rise. In fact, I have photos to share of the Wal-Mart shelves that are sparsely filled of veggies and fruit. It is getting more and more difficult to get food shipped here, is your town next?? Stop being so naive about food production.
I took these because I wanted to show John that I wasn't kidding when I said reviving the bakery was not a possibility. I could no longer get the ingredients I needed to bake. I was having one of those days. This is a random afternoon and when I go today it will be the same. This is not after a holiday or in the middle of a stocking change.
The devil Wal-Mart I’m sure came with all these grand boasts of everything you ever wanted and more... jobs and all that jazz. No full-time employees of course. Bullshit is what they came with as usual. All this farmland surrounding the Wal-Mart no less. I’ve got an idea... GROW LOCAL! BUY LOCAL! Yeah, I’m the insane one. Because we live in a desert prairie that sells its water to Kansas. What is a prairie girl, with two cars, that lives in a ranch house that has turned its back to the alley to do? Right now, not a damn thing. I can’t point a finger at anybody without getting one right back. I don’t have any other choices. Frustration builds and ebbs away... every few weeks. Ignorance would be bliss about now.
I had to add after all of that ranting that my friend Allison sent me an email that I needed today. It was very thoughtful and had beautiful words of wisdom. I think this is what I needed before I created this post. But happy to have it after nonetheless.
“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.” Eckart Tolle
No comments:
Post a Comment