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Good things about Venango County:
It's got the arts program which is sparking lots of interest in the community and bringing in talented and progressive people to Oil City.
It's got the Oil Region Indie Music and Arts Festival which brings in independent ideas on music and art.
It's got the Venango Clarion campus cultural program which has brought in amazing discussions about social issues, great movies, top notch performances and musical groups.
It's got one of the most charming and beautiful environments in the country.
It's got a good library where you can inter-library loan books from all over the world.
It's got a growing slow foods community and a farmer's market where you can find fresh food and people willing to barter for food.
It's got cheap housing.
It's got Chautauqua Institute which is just a little over an hour's drive away.
It's got a small but growing progressive community that is excited about creating positive, sustainable technology, and a diverse community where civil rights are respected.
It's got a pagan community nearby, a yoga studio, and the potential for more spiritual communities that are not dogmatic.
Young people here are waking up to the possibilities of their community and getting organized to create environmentally sustainable, culturally diverse societies.
Right wing extremists are considered boring and uneducated to the younger generation for the most part.
Bad things about Venango County:
It's got a lot of right wing political extremists and dogmatic churches that constantly push their narrow-minded agenda.
It's slow to approve of new industry ideas and wants to revert back to the days of oil. It seems to forget that most of the oil is gone.
It's of a mindset that oil heritage is a positive aspect, when in fact it is a negative image to people these days.
It's slow to understand the impact the internet and other electronic technologies have had on education and society.
It's got the worst school system in the state, and the school system is controlled by right wing extremists. This gets reflected in the high suicide and pregnancy and drug addiction rate among young people.
It's knee jerk, Rush Limbaugh responses to anything new make community discussions about change extremely difficult. For instance, if you discuss keeping the rivers clean or wanting sustainable technologies, you're considered a nutcase.
It's entrenched in a fundamentalist religious mindset that fears anything new and threatens anyone who brings in new ideas.
It's very supportive of the Second Amendment, even though in reality this means that tens of thousands of gun toting, beer drinking hunters go into the woods and shoot anything that moves, including each other.
It's not supportive of the First Amendment if that means allowing people who disagree with right wing extremist politics a chance to be heard.
It's a place where racism, homophobia and misogyny are common and found amusing.
It lacks clean sustainable industries and the will to pursue them, during a time when a lot of people are out of work.
It's big on pushing fast foods, but at the same time pushing anti-drug rallies. It lacks the education to understand the connection between fast foods and obesity/diabetes.
It entrenches itself in the politics of the 1980's with issues like drugs, sexuality, culture, industry and pretty much everything else. Meanwhile the young people in this area have moved way beyond that having educated themselves on the internet. The generation gap of knowledge here is immense.
It's a constant battle to be heard over the right wing extremists who bully their way into every discussion for change and demand that it is either their way or no way.
keep digging ~ the good stuff is here, sometimes just buried...and, besides, it's doubly rewarding to happen upon something really great after toiling through the muck.
ReplyDeleteToiling through the Muck.
ReplyDeleteIs that a gospel tune around here?
Praise the Lord.