It was almost exactly ten years ago, on 27 January 2010, these mangled musings started to show up in the printed pages of The Bulletin, originally on the editorial page. When I read them now, I'm disappointed because I don't sound prescient or taller, though the hallway mirror suggests I'm a lot greyer and rounder.
I'm not the wide-eyed optimist I once was and have ruefully conceded being a pessimist means you can only be surprised but never disappointed. Mainly I was struck by how little so much and nearly everyone seems to have changed, though I'm hoping you're already thinking of points of light which prove me wrong (and there are many with more coming).
Here's how I saw us a decade ago, with some updates:
"Is this the year we start to finally change Norwich back into a place where our adult children will want to come home to, or from which all who have the wherewithal to leave, will flee with a haste that borders on the unseemly as a retreat becomes a rout?
"Pardon an outsider’s observation, but too often we don’t know how we got here, and, more importantly, are unwilling to work together to get to where we want to go. We need to stop waiting for Hartford, which is politically and financially exhausted, or for Washington, D. C., which is too far away, and even more broken with too many of its own problems, to ‘save’ us.
"And we need to finally wake up from the recurring dream we have of finding that one big development project that will transform the three rivers upon which Norwich was founded into flowing honey and the falling raindrops (and snowflakes) into gumdrops.
"The only help we can count on, and should, is the assistance we give to ourselves. If we're looking for a helping hand, look no further than the end of each of your arms; that's two and that's a start. If you join hands with those of your neighbor, we have an initiative--and if three of us work together, it’s a movement.
"Every person, every building, every block and every neighborhood, one community. We've seen what working to benefit only ourselves has gotten us--a society of sharpened elbows and people not afraid to use them. Many have stopped trying and so we have to pick them up as we take ourselves along to where we need to get to in order to rebuild and rediscover the spark in the dark that made us who we are.”
The falling apart didn’t happen overnight though too many of us seem to have forgotten that and a lot more work and considerably less talk (and column writing) will be needed to continue the rebuilding and redefinition of Norwich.
“And the work will not be easy because it’s not ever easy, and it's not instant, but we're not in this life or nation, or circumstance, alone. And we can do this, because, when you get through with all the platitudes, we have no choice. You're burning daylight, sitting here reading this, my friend. The dogs bark but the caravan moves on."
-bill kenny
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