That's the way I am: Life back home is changing
As most of you may know, I usually don't work during the summer months. Sara Hill works during those months. I come into the office to help when needed.
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Around the first of June, my two sisters, Ronnie, Charity, and I traveled back home to Youngstown, Ohio. We went because it was my brother's eldest son's high school graduation.
My husband Ron couldn't take vacation time since we will be heading that way at the end of July for the Needle's Eye cultural weekend camp for inner-city youth.
Rachael, our daughter, is taking summer classes at Wichita State University and was not able to go with us either.
We attended the graduation exercises and helped my mom and my sister-in-law prepare for my nephew's graduation party.
As we did various errands, we saw a few of our high school classmates. Some of them we hadn't seen in 25 years or more. We were able to recognize a few of them, but some of them had changed quite a lot and we weren't able to know who they were.
A one-week visit turned into two weeks. As we were returning home to Kansas about five hours from Youngstown, our mother called us on my sister's cell phone. She told us that her brother had died, so we turned around to go back to help her with the funeral arrangements.
During our visit, each evening we would sit on the porch of my parents' home. We noticed how the neighborhood had drastically changed. There was just a handful of neighbors who still lived there from when we were growing up.
One noticeable difference was the upkeep of the homes. Those neighbors who lived there for quite a number of years had their houses painted and their yard attractively decorated with flowers and shrubs.
The empty houses were left unattended and needed painting and some were boarded up. It was very different from what we had grown up with through the years.
It was disappointing to see the drug houses that have sprung up on both my parents' and in-laws' neighborhoods.
Almost every evening as we sat on the porch, we could see the drug activity taking place before our eyes. Drug deals were being made in broad daylight. There was constant traffic in and out until the wee hours of the night.
People from all walks of life, both black and white were customers driving up and down the street looking for "a buy."
Hearing gun shots being fired every night was common place.
The week before our coming, a young man was shot almost in front of my in-laws' home. Ron's mom went out to help and pray with the young man until the ambulance and police arrived.
It took them about 20 to 30 minutes to get there, which is commonplace for that side of town. But I won't take the time to address that issue.
It seems life in Youngstown has really deteriorated and those left there have a lot to deal with on a daily basis.
The Vindicator, which is the city's newspaper, had headline stories about some drug bust or drug-related crimes of some sort for the two weeks we were there. The stories seemed to overshadow the graduation celebrations.
While we there, the city had suffered its 16th homicide of the year. The case involved a 19-year-old man shot in the head while he carried a nine millimeter gun. Police officials at that time weren't sure whether the crime was gang-related or not.
Unemployment is so high because of the shutting down of three of the five major steel mills in the city. The city's school system was taken over by the state. Prostitution is rampant, and fighting still goes on between the gangs and the Mafia over drug territorial rights.
Life in Youngstown is certainly not as it used to be.
My heart goes out to the kids who are faced with these kinds of conditions every day. They have to grow up fast and hardly ever get a chance to experience childhood.
Many are left to fend for themselves.
Drugs, alcohol, and violence are widespread, especially in the bigger cities. But, small towns are not immune from this activity, the incidents may not be as numerous.
Case in point: When I returned to Hillsboro, I noticed on the front page, a story in the newspaper about a stabbing. The court page had numerous incidences involving drugs, alcohol, and other drug-related activities.
I guess it is the sign of the times as foretold in Revelation.
This trip in June was alarming and disheartening to me because I saw first hand what poverty, drugs, alcohol, and criminal activity can do. It can cripple a neighborhood and the people who live there, as well as a city and its school system.
In July, when my husband and I speak to the kids of those communities, we certainly want to instill in them some hope that they can achieve in spite of their horrendous surroundings.
We want to reiterate to them that they don't have to be a product of their environment — that they can rise above their circumstances
Cathy Davis
