No one cares about apathy anymore!

In a luncheon conversation the other day, we listed the people we knew who are trying to do something positive to save the Dodge City historic district. Turns out, the vast majority of them are not native to Dodge City. Why is this? I think it has to do with being too close to things.

When I was young we lived in Silver Springs, MD, just a few miles out of the nation's capitol. We lived there about 4 years. Do you know, I never visited the Smithsonian or the major monuments and the Capitol building until my senior year of high school when we had lived in up state New York for over 3 years? That's the problem. If you live really close to something you develop myopia. You can't see the value in it because you are too familiar with it. We had to move a few hundred miles away before we realized that Washington, DC was a neat place to go visit and filled with history and things to see and do.

I think that's what is wrong with Dodge City - why we are losing what little we have left of the history. The natives here are so close to our western history that they don't see it at all the way visitors do. Consequently they have let it colapse and it seems inpossible to wake them from their slumber. They just don't see anything remarkable about Dodge City.

Well, I've got about a year and a half left to go in Dodge City and I've committed myself to do as much as I can to save the historic district. Sometimes, like very recently when listening to the insane ravings of the FFAB, I wonder if the collosal ignorance of some of our denizens won't overcome the best efforts of a lot of really good people. From time to time it gets downright depressing.