Open Letter Captures My Thoughts Exactly

As the City of Troy begins to move forward, so many thoughts roll through my mind about the experiences this community has shared over the past year. 

Some of it has been downright unpleasant.

But in the midst of the unpleasantness has been an overriding sense of true collaboration, with people coming together not so much to fight against something, but rather to fight for something. 

Troy residents are paying attention and fighting for their hometown … for fair play … for logical decision making ... for dignity … for partisanship to be set aside and, (if we’re all being completely honest with ourselves), for the ability to stick our heads in the sand and simply not pay any attention anymore.

A fellow Troy resident sums this all up far better than I can with his latest blog post.  (Rodney Curtis is another example of a wonderful resident with an incredible back story.  I highly recommend going back through his blog entries for the posts he shared during his battle with leukemia.)   

And so I share here The Spiritual Wanderer and his Open Letter to Acting Mayor Maureen McGinnis and Councilman Dane Slater:

Dear Maureen and Dane,

I can’t wait to be bored again.

In my career as a journalist, I’ve covered countless city council meetings, discussions, conferences and planning sessions. They rarely make for good pictures and unless the topics are splashy, they don’t generally hold my interest.

I should be deeply invested in my community. I should be civic minded and a responsible citizen. Normally though, I leave that to other people, better people. Now that I’m no longer what you’d call a practicing member of the news media (I like to say I’m a recovering journalist) I find it hard to be interested in the normal, day-to-day goings on behind the scenes in my own town....

Read the whole letter here