Editorial

What defines community

Saturday, January 14, 2023
Rachel Townsend is General Manager/ Managing Editor of the State Gazette

I grew up in mill town. Those were the days when the Cotton Mill was thriving, and paid the bills for half the folks in our community. Richard Hill has always been a local treasure. Every day, he would greet my brother and me when we would come up to wait for our aunt to get off work. With so many of my family members working there, my mom would take my brother and me to work with her in the morning. Her shift would start as my aunt’s would be finishing up, so they would trade us out and, shortly after, we would be carried off to school at Jennie Bell, right down the street.

Coach Cupples was my PE teacher. Those were the days before teacher/student diplomacy, when the fate of unruly kids was found at the end of a wooden paddle. I loved that school, and I miss it. I do not miss the paddle. Coach Cupples, Sarah Alley, the late Bart Williams, Richard Hill (and so many more) are community treasures. I aspire to have at least an inkling of the integrity and character they each have. They are giving and they have been true lovers of the community. Watching their generation lead our community forward has been instrumental in helping me learn to become the person I am and understand how to effect positive change. Along with my kids, life partner, and a few close friends, it has been from their examples of love, encouragement, and endless support that I have felt supported to do more and to be more throughout my life.

I mention all of that to say this...

This week has been a week of turbulence within parts of our community. I wholeheartedly believe our community is far more than the sum of its parts. You can't fit a community into any building, no matter how hard you try; it's a fluid, ever-changing concept; it's a pat on the back; it's the support you get from friends, neighbors and, sometimes, the unexpected stranger. A community cannot be so fragile that it can be tethered to a measurable space; it must also be strong enough to welcome and invite the opinions and feelings of everyone it umbrellas. Communities do not have walls, but people do. Only with understanding and openness can there can be forward growth.