Staying Afloat

Maybe I missed something, didn’t get that email, heard the special breaking news report or just did not quite understand what some people are saying about progress in urban America.  I just don’t know what they see, heard, what they have come to believe or been drinking.  I know about the new construction ventures, expanding businesses, mergers, innovations, new technologies and breakthroughs.  And I get that and appreciate the forward movement and thinking.  Somehow or in some way, what I am seeing and what others are seeing or omitting are two different things. 

But this is one thing I know for sure; urban America has a long way to go in order to make a comeback or to reinvent itself from those famous glory days during the “golden era of industry and manufacturing.”  This is not just occurring here in Milwaukee, but throughout every urban center in America that was built upon having a large labor force in mass manufacturing.  With that era gone, urban America also loss livable wage jobs, businesses and educational training centers.  And now those days are but distance memories that have left so much of America in shambles with hollowed out cities and ghost towns. 

Those days are gone and shall never return, but the lingering long term effects and the transition from an industrial base economy to technology driven economy continue to leave an entire aging generation behind, in the dust or underwater.  Just trying to keep up with so many advances is a job all to itself.   In so many places from urban America to rural towns, people have suffered a lot of setbacks, pain, depression, displacement and instability.  But they have remained hopeful. 


Trying to keep true to the core values of the American Dream, that is based upon the belief that by working hard you can make your dreams come true.  However, with each passing day, not only are baby boomers having a hard time in dealing with these changes, but that the next generation is struggling as well.  What is so amazing today is that even in the midst of living in the harsh reality of rough neighborhoods in urban America, people have learned how to adapt and stay afloat.  Of course this is not as simple as it sounds, but people have learned how to tread and bail water out of their boat situation.