"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
24 March 2004Stories we could tellTo rather a large number of Americans, Oklahoma City is something of an enigma: it's one of the 30 largest cities in the country (29th, says the 2000 Census), but it simply doesn't register on the national radar unless there's something dreadfully terrible happening — say, a truck bomb at the Federal Building, or a tornado that measures nearly off the scale. To some extent, we tend not to notice our comparative invisibility; we've got work to do, dammit. Mike Swickey (23 March) thinks it's time to take another look:
I want my weblog to look at my city — Oklahoma City — in a new and (again, I think) unique way. I want to find the people in this city that know its history, its pros, its cons. Find people who do thankless work that goes unnoticed. Look at jobs in our city that are only thought of in passing — and maybe with some derision. It takes all kinds to make a city like Oklahoma City tick 24-7. I want to mix a little history of OKC with history of our popular culture and a look at the people who have been here, are here now, and chances are, will be here years from now. Profiles of our city. Sometimes an individual, sometimes an interesting job that quietly gets done, maybe the profile will look at a building — an old movie palace or a long lost 15-story brick art-deco building that fell victim to evil personified: The Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority of the sixties and seventies.
Emphasis in the original, and I don't think he's kidding; OCURA in those days was primarily concerned with removing old buildings, and not a whole lot of thought went into whether the replacements would be an improvement. There are, they say, eight million stories in the Naked City. We're a bit more modest here, but I'm sure we've got tales to tell. And if anyone can find them, it's Mike Swickey. It's Oklahoma for Gods sake, who cares? Posted by: Kevin at 3:28 PM on 24 March 2004I (heart) OKC - and OK in general. You might even say that I left...well, not my heart, but at least my spleen, or perhaps a kidney, in Oklahoma. But on a more serious note -- it's a good read, that Swickey blog, but goshdarnit, it needs a commenting feature! Posted by: David at 8:34 PM on 25 March 2004 |