Dear Editor,
Unlike most citizens of Greene County I have only been alive for 17 years, but a part of this community for all of them, my roots run deep here. To let you fully grasp how deep my roots are here my great-great-great-grandparents came on a boat from Germany in 1897 and planted their family tree in the Cooper and Jefferson area, and we have not left since.
Not to mention the cramped hallways of the current middle school I used to walk down everyday were the same ones my mother, and my grandparents and great-grandfather walked down. I am the fourth generation to roam these hall, but I will promise you now if this community does not move forward I will not make my children the fifth generation to be stuck in a retirement town.
Now I have some food for thought. Have you asked yourself why our community wants a new school? Why parents want better for their children? Why business want a Regional Career Academy? Can you sit down, take a minute and honestly ask yourself why our students, parents, and business want this?
Well I can tell you. Our community wants to better itself so we can continue to grow and thrive; that’s why we need a new school. Parents want to see their children come back to this community to raise their own families, that’s why they believe we need a new school. Businesses want access to an educated trained workforce that is homegrown, that’s why they need the Regional Career academy. Finally the students, we want to live in a thriving community with forward thinking ideas. A place we know our future families will thrive, and have the best opportunities.
Wouldn’t be great if that place was our home. So I am asking you now, please do for me what I cannot do for myself, vote yes. Give my younger siblings an upper hand going into college, give my future family a fighting chance to make a good life in Greene county. Please let me come home to the community I love, let me come home to a place I know my future children will be proud sixth generation students.
Please, let me come home. But if that’s too much to ask I’ll move on and so will the rest of us. Just make sure the last one to leave shuts the lights off on their way out.
Gwen Black, Class of 2018
