This is my second letter from Detroit to my hometown. In the first, I emphasized the importance of local media and to follow through on that suggestion I am seeking to write more to my local paper, The Commercial Dispatch.
The Presidency of Donald Trump crystallizes the historic challenges facing my generation, the millennials. Growing up I thought we lacked a clarion call to justice compared to my parent’s generation. I remember my father making that very point to me on occasion, not without a hint of cockiness, either.
Not now. Even my father would acknowledge that 9/11, the Iraq War, the 2008 Great Recession, current partisan politics, the pandemic with the accompanying pandemic recession are a match for any non-wartime era. Our generation appears on the verge of a rupture that could create long term damage to our future. In part we need new voices to speak a better future into existence.
One national split is between the small towns/rural areas and the big cities/suburbs. Divides are pesty little creatures always looking for some place to infest. Even when you are in a small town, you recognize such artificial divides between the small towns and their smaller neighbors, small town off shoots (think Columbus and Caledonia), in the same way there is tension between the inner city and its suburbs, think Detroit and Oakland County. While expressed differently these divisions always appear to arise, as consistent as the sunrise in the east.
I’m no sociologist, but I do see some surface trends. Clearly small towns feed talent into large cities, and as the country becomes more urban, those trends feel like big cities taking the life out of small towns and not giving much in return. Many of my talented classmates have gone on to be bankers in Tokyo, lawyers in Washington D.C., filmmakers in Los Angeles, and many other successful endeavors, but that success is not being felt in places like my hometown.
We need to reverse this trend. And it is very doable. For one, we need to highlight and celebrate and expound upon the infrastructure that makes our small towns successful. Our small towns have strong networks of families and churches that can create a sense of community and belonging that inspire people as individuals and families to be their best selves, and to feel happy. Things like children’s museums, local family orientated entertainment, amplification of local sport achievements, can all appropriate what is working well within our small towns. In addition, it wouldn’t hurt if our small towns became more focused on fun. Young people want a vibrant social life. Large scale events and entertainment at the local level brings togetherness that can feed a bigger sense of belonging and joy.
Next, the national media needs to stop locking us out. Having spent much of my life in Mississippi, our stories and voices are woefully underrepresented in the national media landscape and used in cartoonish ways when mentioned at all. It often feels like if you don’t live in a city you are invisible and voiceless.
The films and television shows about our country cannot all be set in a few cities and their suburbs, OR tell just their stories. The federal government needs to invest in rural and small town communities’ arts and cultural and storytelling institutions. And those institutions need to take seriously the desire of local artists to perform and exhibit their work on the largest platform possible. Too often these civic arts institutions become national celebrity obsessed themselves.
Finally, more national content set in and made for the south would be great as well; shows like Friday Night Lights and movies like American Sniper have done well financially but have not led to a renaissance of media made by and for small town American. Why not?
The cleavage pulling our country apart can be countered by acknowledging the tensions and seizing the opportunities for consensus. I would argue it’s an eternal truth that one can never be better than where you came from.
Andrew Colom is a Columbus native now living in Detroit, Michigan.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 24 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
