This post is the third of a trilogy about Whitewater. Months ago, I posted the first two of this series. (See, How Many Rights for Whitewater? and What Standards for Whitewater?).
Those earlier posts may be summarized simply:
Of rights —
Of standards —
If rights matter (and they do) and standards matter (and they do), one question yet remains:
Why Whitewater?
Why write about this place, rather than another? Why contend over this small city’s future, rather than that of another place?
This, truly, is the easiest answer of all:
There’s no better place in which to write, contend, and live.
Not partial rights, not sham standards, but a full and genuine measure of both. No one should live that he or she is no more than an extra in someone else’s film, or an ornament for a vain man’s pride.
Someone once told me, by way of a supposed rebuke, that it was wrong to expect as much of officials in Whitewater, and for the residents of our city. She believed that one should settle for less from government, and expect less for residents, as this was a small town incapable of better.
To contend as she did is to contend falsely, to advance a dark and cynical view.
All around us, among many thousands, one finds talent and accomplishment. It is right to see as much, but even if one saw none of this, still it would be wrong to suggest that those who live here are deserving of less.
There are also residents here, as there are in every community, who are ill or disabled – but they also are entitled by nature to the rights and care owed to all others. Often, they are deserving of additional care and comfort.
People see as they’d like, and love as they’d like, but as for me, I see Whitewater, and love her, in this way: through an unshakable belief that people in our city merit rights and standards naturally and necessarily.
Here, as beautiful and as deserving as anywhere.