City

                                                    City                                    By Michelle P.

Song of the city,

Echoes of the past.

Melody of the future,

Days gone by fast.

Touch of the hand,

Rarely seen in my day.

Pride lost and forgotten,

City light the way.

The other day while driving around I was listening to the radio. The Morning Crew were discussing the fact that my city is considered a terrible, unsafe place to live and they had people calling in to say how they felt about it. Everyone was talking about how horrible and unsafe a place it is as if we live in the ghetto. One women even said she lived in Saudi Arabia for some time and she felt safer there than she does here. I found it rather ironic that here I was driving around since 4:30am (which I have been doing for about a year and a half now), alone, in the dark delivering newspapers. Not once in all this time have I felt threatened or even scared. Not once. I felt sad for the city, this place I call home. I have lived in other places, Minnesota, Illinois and even Michigan. Our city is a place we need to love as long as we are here. We need to make it what we want it to be.

The poem I wrote for this video talks about the men and women who built our city, the craftsmanship and effort that when into things even as small as the cover on our sewer system. It goes on to say how we need to remember that city pride and build a place we can be proud of. All we have to do is look closely at the city of the past to imagine the city of the future.