Thanks to everyone for your touching words of encouragement, you are all very kind. Ive been thinking a lot today and I believe the reason I was going to delete this page is that I felt insulted (again) and my initial response was to take my proverbial ball and go home. But, Ive come to realize that to do so would unfairly pass the insult along to the fans of this page. So, I will not be deactivating the page. However, I cant continue on the present course either. I love Huntington. Ive loved Huntington since I was a kid when wed drive all the way from the highlands of WV, past Charleston, to go Christmas shopping in Huntington. I was born and raised a Thundering Herd fan. My parents (one of whom is current WVU employee and the other is a former WVU employee) have flown a Marshall flag on the house for as long as I can remember--the MU flag only comes down to be replaced by the American flag on Independence Day and Veterans Day, the MIA/POW flag on Memorial Day, and the WV state flag on West Virginia Day. On my 13th birthday I got a new mountain bike: On the way to the store we listened the Herd playing the Mountaineers with my parents rooting for Chad and Randy like they were their own kids the whole time. I moved to Huntington in 2002 and, like most people when they first come to Huntington, was awestruck by its potential. But now, 12 years later, I see the city still stuck at potential. Ive spent a lot of time on the road over those 12 years. Ive performed standup comedy in most major cities, and quite a few not-so-major cities, between Dallas, TX and Boston, MA. Ive technically performed on Broadway at Carolines Comedy Club in New York. Ive seen what the standards are by which any city in the 21st Century will be compared and I dont see Huntington making the necessary steps at the proper pace to meet those standards. Speaking as someone who is on the outside looking in in most cases, I am stunned at Huntingtons unwillingness to work together on practically anything; its unwillingness to embrace the youth, creative types, the arts, the university, new industries, new types of property development, or anything which doesnt fit the predetermined image of Huntington that is primarily based on a faded memory of the 1950s. I have termed this Huntingtons Culture of Failure. It has been a major goal of mine, through Downtown Huntington and Vintage Huntington, to try and set the history straight and point Huntington toward a culture of success...as we once had. Long before the Larry the Cable Guy coined the phrase Git R Done, or the Obama campaign trademarked Yes We Can; Huntington was known as the We Will city--meaning whatever you need done, well get it done. Somehow, over the years, the we will city became the we wont city. That should be more heartbreaking than any loss of industry because it allows us to be defeated by the same setbacks over and over again. We MUST break the culture of failure in Huntington, and I promise to continue in that fight. I dont yet know how this will affect the Downtown page, if at all, but I promise that as long as I have admin power, this page will never be deleted. ~Aaron-Michael Fox.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 21:58:21 +0000
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