My hometown is about 4 miles north of Austin, IN. Austin is in the news again — and it’s not pretty. See that image to the left? That’s what is trending on Facebook.
Some 11-years ago, 10 year-old Katie Coleman was abducted and killed. In the beginning, it was believed (because someone falsely confessed), that the forth-grader was murdered because she witnessed drug activity and/or a meth lab. Although later found to be untrue, in the interim — when that’s what was in the news nationally — the Scott County communities of Austin and Scottsburg rallied to Crothersville’s aid.
In 2004, obtaining a high-speed Internet connectivity account was a struggle for smaller rural areas. Nothing like now… the options were slim to none. When the City of Scottsburg got a grant and began providing wireless high-speed Internet services outside their county, I was their first customer/beta tester in Crothersville. So when the FBI set-up shop in the local fire department to find Katie (and later investigate who murdered her), I was called to help them acquire immediate Internet connectivity. I made one call and the bucket truck rolled in within the hour… providing the service at no cost to our town or the FBI. (Now I’m not saying there were NEVER charges… but I do know they came within an hour of my calling and didn’t ask for payment.)
Also in the interim… before anyone knew anything about Anthony Stockleman… I was asked to speak at the Scott County ‘Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast,’ along with my good friend and local funeral home owner/director and the Jackson County Prosecutor (who would later prosecute Katie’s killer). The overall theme and tone of this event was (again, it was still believed Katie’s death was drug related) ‘we are ONE community standing together to fight the horrible meth epidemic plaguing our area.’
I wrote all the blah blah blah above because it’s stuck in my head for over 10 years. I remember the Mayor of Scottsburg (who was also a speaker on the program I mention above) reminding the audience that there isn’t a grand wall or deep ravine dividing Austin and Crothersville. And he was right. When a little girl went missing and it was thought drugs were the primary reason, the communities of Austin and Scottsburg stepped up to fight right beside Crothersville. Now, when drugs are the primary reason so many residents of Austin have been diagnosed with HIV, I don’t see my hometown community rallying behind them. Maybe they are… but I personally haven’t seen it. I understand why… I do… but I sure feel awful for the Austin community even though I’m no longer just 4 miles away.
If you like podcasts and want to hear more about the drug/HIV epidemic in Austin, check out Embedded.
Facebook Friday… where I share the most noteworthy things I found on FB for the week…
First I found this…
I remember going to the Stardust Theatre a time or two. We would take a blanket to place on the hood of the car in the summer — and in the winter, you’d need that blanket to stay warm inside the car (it’s not like you could leave your vehicle running through two movies). You could see about everything once it got dark enough for the shows to begin. From parents with a car full of kids (cheap entertainment for the family), to teenagers walking around visiting with every other teenager in town. And there were plenty of steamed-up windows too. But never mine. 😉
And so you don’t think I’m in love with Facebook:
Because I’ve not shared a negative thing reference Facebook for so long you might be thinking I love it… here’s this great example to the left of why I don’t. I hate this shit type of thing for a multitude of reasons:
One might assume the person who included the words within the image was no more than 10 years old. “U R” is only slightly shorter than “you are” and the grammar police in me cringes every single time I see it used.
What is to gain by this? Obviously, we are supposed to feel guilty if we don’t type “amen.” And if we ignore it and scroll on past we are scum of the earth heartless! What other purpose is there?
18k people responded by commenting — most of them typed “amen.”
1,800 people shared it… so they could make THEIR friends feel guilty and heartless if they didn’t do the same.
And… 45,000 people liked the photo. Where does Facebook find all these stupid people anyway? And obviously, at least ONE of them is a friend of mine or I wouldn’t have ever had this photo served up in my newsfeed.
This sort of reminds me of an incident I remember happening when I drove a school bus. I had a parent walk their child to the bus and excitedly show me a letter she had received from Publisher’s Clearing House. It was the one that said something like “YOU HAVE WON A GAZILLION DOLLARS” and in small print below… “or a free $1 item with your next purchase.” This woman was barely able to read and believed her life was about to change forever — at a time when she was living in a house with a dirt floor and trying to raise one handicapped child and his sibling. It’s no secret there are people that believe everything they read on the Internet and see on Facebook. Watch out for the traps and instead simply pick out the things that make you happy. Never feel guilty for not clicking “like” or “share.”
And finally…
My Dad spent a lifetime treating people the way he felt they should be treated. In our small-town grocery store, he spent just as much time talking to Edna, (who purchased cat food for her own dinner), as he did the customer who spent a good deal of money every week to feed a family. It’s simply who he was.
I guess I didn’t realize how much I am like my Dad in certain aspects, and so I laughed when I read Jerilyn’s Facebook status update. A minister tells her it’s a good thing to be kind and speak to everyone along the way and she has an “ah ha!” moment. I tried to tell her the same for decades and she blew me off. Life is funny like that I guess. And if YOU don’t go on Facebook right this second and type “amen,” on Jerilyn’s post and share it — you are heartless. Seriously.
Population changes and a birthday have nothing to do with one another. Just clearing that up — don’t want you to think the birthday boy has anything to do with population growth. 🙂
I found something I thought was interesting today and I wanted to share it with you guys. If you’re not from or near Jackson County, Indiana, you won’t care one bit about it. Accept my apologies and invitation to return tomorrow.
I’m not a huge fan of statistics for the most part, but the population increases/decreases within Jackson County, Indiana’s cities and towns has me scratching my head. I was of the opinion that people were leaving smaller Crothersville and Medora — and migrating to even bigger Seymour and Brownstown. I was wrong! Check out the stats below:
Sources: US Census Bureau
Cities & Towns
Population in 2014
Population in 2008
Brownstown
2,956
2,981
Crothersville
1,599
1,508
Medora
699
538
Seymour
19,094
19,223
Crothersville and Medora GREW in population, while Seymour and Brownstown DECLINED in population. I’m wondering if that’s good news for the house I have for sale at 204 E Bard in Crothersville.
And finally… happy birthday to my favorite brother on the planet — Scott McKain! He always hates it when I post dorky photos of him as a kid on social media. Only because I respect his birthday wishes did I refrain from that this year. Instead, I simply posted this:
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! You know that sound you hear as a wide load is backing up? That’s what I woke up to this morning…
The ditch in front of the house in the Ville is already deep — so deep, in fact, that you can’t stand on the ‘bank’ and weed eat the bottom. A big ole’ pain in the butt to maintain in the summer! But evidently, it wasn’t nearly deep enough because the county showed up to dig early enough to wake me up, and after digging only one side of the ditch that runs the length of the front yard their dump truck was full. The lovely rocks stacked around the drive’s culvert are now nothing but a rugged display of how to waste time. If you need fill dirt, the county will soon have plenty to sell.
I figure I’d better soak in this experience. Once in Seymour, the whole ditch digging thing will be nothing but a memory. That mental list I’m keeping of the positive and negative aspects of moving just got one more mark on the positive side.
It may be freezing cold right now in southern Indiana, but ole’ Mother Nature is still hard at work painting amazing evening skies right here on the outskirts of the Ville. They say that ‘the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill‘ — and I will admit I often think of locating to other parts of the US where the climate is a bit less harsh. This is a view that I would surely miss. And, it’s a gentle reminder to me that it’s pretty darned green right here.
My hometown is about 4 miles north of Austin, IN. Austin is in the news again — and it’s not pretty. See that image to the left? That’s what is trending on Facebook.
