I grew up in Newport News, Virginia. As a product of the East End in the 1980’s and 90’s, I saw the decline of a city and a way of life and the Newport News Shipyard contracted and jobs began to disappear, then as the drug and crime problem proliferated as a result. I watched as the city abandoned its downtown and ceded neighborhoods to oblivion while promulgating and perpetuating city expansion further westward away from the African American sections of town in brazen attempts to act as if the black portions of the city did not matter. They even moved city hall further uptown to alleviate the hassle that white citizens may have experienced having to go all the way downtown to handle municipal business.
That’s my city. That’s what they do.
So, its not a surprise that I see that my local paper, The Daily Press, has endorsed John McCain for president. Its also not a surprise that I don’t live in Newport News anymore.
To put it simply, Newport News doesn’t matter. Its a city that has become mired in its own mistakes, complacent in its inability to progress, and a denizen of lost opportunity. How else can you explain electing the same mayor for the past fiteen years, and still not having real and noticeable economic growth or the attraction of any new business into the city? How else can you explain a newspaper like The Daily Press, which has been one of the poorest examples of journalism and accountablity and integrity, endorsing John McCain.
The editorial staff is indicative of the city, backward looking, in need of innovation, and in such a sad decline that others only look on and shake their heads.
I love Newport News, its always going to be home. But I don’t like what Newport News has become nor do I feel as though there is some reasonable excuse for its state. Simply stated, the complacency of a populace and the awesome emptiness of intellectual growth has sent more of the city’s best and brightest elsewhere while the most mediocre and average try to hold it all together.
And yes, I’m calling Phil Hamilton mediocre and average and that’s probably an overstatement.
I sometimes wonder why I can’t move back to Newport News or why, when I am there, it doesn’t feel like its going anywhere… and then I read the Daily Press and see an endorsement of John McCain for president and I remember why.
Newport News will always be home. Its just a shame I’m too smart to live there.
