Greensboro, North Carolina: What's Wrong With Living Here & Why Greensboro Cannot Retain It's Humongous College Student Potential Workforce
M.D. Wright
5.3.09
There is an interesting dynamic that exists in Greensboro, North Carolina. Greensboro has a reputation; not a positive one, amongst Greensboro natives, transplants from other states for work or college students who come to study at the 11 schools in the area.
For years, there was no nightlife to speak of in Greensboro. The "Downtown" area was a ghost town for many years. I hate to compare anything to New York, but I must say that without any major sports teams, no nightlife and nothing that appeals to 20/30-somethings who aren't married or have children, what purpose does this city serve for those who would even consider living here long-term?
Mind you, the population is over 250,000.
There are cities all up and down the eastern seaboard from Portland, Maine to Miami that boast more night life than Greensboro does. And to prove that this boredom, malaise and relative (I say relative, because there are those who are homeless and no education) hopelessness that exists in Greensboro is ENDEMIC to Greensboro, just look at the only two cities that out-populate Greensboro in North Carolina: Raleigh and Charlotte.
Raleigh as boomed in the past ten years. Charlotte's population has tripled since 1980. Neither city is short on things to do. Why? Because they CATER to the demographic that they claim they want to retain in their cities. Charlotte is very cosmopolitan; it appeals to upwardly mobile college graduates with two or more post-graduate degrees, middle-upper management/VP types and the new entrepreneurs in the southeast.
Raleigh appeals to every techie (and concurrently, every nurse, chemist, dentist or any other person in medicine in the southeast, with NC State, Duke Hospital, UNC Hospital and then UNC and Duke as school choices -- which are in and of themselves major draws.
Who does Greensboro appeal to?
Fifty something Empty Nesters, Jerry Springer viewers who like to sit around and have children while collecting WIC and other Social Security benefits?
Ask 90% of the recent college graduates from NC A&T, UNCG, Bennett, Guilford, GTCC, High Point Univ., WSSU, etc. and they unanimously want to leave here as soon as possible. This is what is driving me back to New York, which is where I wish I had never left in the first place. Going back 4-5 times a year and spending every summer Uptown is not the same as being there year-round and having things to do.
As I mentioned before, there are several universities here. A potentially large workforce. The problem? So few jobs. Everyone claims to be hiring at all times, but they rarely do. The Moses Cone Hospital network is huge, but if you're not an LPN, CNA, RN or CRN, forget about it with them. If you're not in administration in the university system somehow, forget about it. Even if you have several degrees. If anything, that might over qualify you. Sheesh.
The only thing here is customer call (i.e. abuse hot line) centers and Hack Agencies (read: Collections). Who, in their right mind (and wants to sleep at night) would do such work as harassing people into paying a collections account, when they themselves probably have a couple in collections? DEAR GOD.
Greensboro needs to get it together and stop operating like a Mom & Pop country store, before it ends up BECOMING ONE.
The city needs better public transportation, a light rail system (and for Stephen's sake, with the taxes that are levied here, this is not far-fetched) and to lure more businesses here. Greensboro is very spread out, but the great majority of the non-minimum wage jobs are in the northwestern corridor of the city.
Lying at the confluence of two major interstate highways (I-40/I-85), and 30 miles from one that brings people from gettin' it in Ohio (I-77) and Virginia, along with just being 75 miles from I-95, this city should be as large and vibrant as Atlanta.
You tell ME what's wrong with this picture...
I'll welcome any thoughts.
As politically incorrect as I wanna be.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Men... And Church
Men... And Church
M.D. Wright
5.3.09
I have had discussions lately with both men and women (mostly those who wonder why men continue to avoid going to church regularly, if at all).
The answer(s) is/are both simple and complex, but there aren't many. Here they are, from what I have been able to decipher from the guys I know and from my own personal experience after leaving the church I went to for over 15 years in Greensboro.
1. They don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ in the first place.
There are guys who promise a "good church girl" the night before (usually after they consensually engaged in illicit activity -- and yes, I'm calling some of y'all out, because I CAN and I KNOW) that he will go to church with her the next day in order to appease her. He may go a time or two, but if she doesn't poke and prod and continue to press him about going, he won't. Why else would someone go to church if they have not the proper purpose for going in mind in the first place?
2. They have wandered from God if they are already saved.
This actually isn't all that common, because many of the guys who go to church consistently have what is best described as an off-and-on relationship with God to begin with. They just attend church out of rote, but they're not really active nor effective because of the aforementioned reason. The ones who usually stop going or never go to begin with and have wandered from God have been in rebellion and disobedience for some time before they actually stop attending. That, or they see an influx of poisonous spirits that infiltrate every ministry and see other vile things up close if they were involved in heading a ministry or assisting a pastor, elder or some other clergy. This happens quite a bit more often and explains why some guys abruptly stop going altogether.
3. The apparent embracing of the homosexual spirit that has engulfed many of the upcoming generation of young adult men -- while shunning Apostle Paul-like men who have not abdicated their kingly thrones as men.
I cannot account for how often this has happened. I have heard it expressed MANY times, however. And most people in church know fully well that from the music ministry down to other ministries in the church that overtly gay, unconsciously feminine or just flat out boys and young men who are around 99% of the time and therefore have become effeminate have dominated the male populace in most church congregations in the United States. It's not a regional thing.
Side Note: I was close with a great number of my cousins on all sides of my family growing up; 2/3 of the ones I was around most of the time were girls. I'm not effeminate in the least. So using that as an excuse as to why so many of these boys act like this in church now is ludicrous.
SEGUE
4. The church seems content with playing to peoples' emotions and not dealing with reality and truth. Yes, emotion IS part of the worship order. God ordained it that way. After all, He gave us emotions as an accompaniment to the physical, spiritual and logical senses He instilled in us when it comes to understanding His Word and His entire being. However, far too often there is constant pandering to the emotional, hoopin' and hollerin', shouting that is not steeped in any real truth or purpose, but just something reminiscent of a scene of women watching Sex & The City or an episode of Desperate Housewives. This emotional appeal is naturally going to go over most men's heads, while appealing fully to women, as they dwell on the emotion far more often than men do. Most men require and desire substantial truth manifested in evidence (I know, I know, Hebrews 11:1) before the emotional appeals from the pulpit are going to have any effect.
For all that, most of them can get their emotional jollies by watching ball games, fights, playing sports, racing cars or doing whatever it is most of them do when they DON'T go to church.
Notice this isn't a worldwide problem -- but almost endemic to the United States. The church doesn't deal in truth or TRUE Holy Spirit works. The latter being the ultimate issue.
M.D. Wright
5.3.09
I have had discussions lately with both men and women (mostly those who wonder why men continue to avoid going to church regularly, if at all).
The answer(s) is/are both simple and complex, but there aren't many. Here they are, from what I have been able to decipher from the guys I know and from my own personal experience after leaving the church I went to for over 15 years in Greensboro.
1. They don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ in the first place.
There are guys who promise a "good church girl" the night before (usually after they consensually engaged in illicit activity -- and yes, I'm calling some of y'all out, because I CAN and I KNOW) that he will go to church with her the next day in order to appease her. He may go a time or two, but if she doesn't poke and prod and continue to press him about going, he won't. Why else would someone go to church if they have not the proper purpose for going in mind in the first place?
2. They have wandered from God if they are already saved.
This actually isn't all that common, because many of the guys who go to church consistently have what is best described as an off-and-on relationship with God to begin with. They just attend church out of rote, but they're not really active nor effective because of the aforementioned reason. The ones who usually stop going or never go to begin with and have wandered from God have been in rebellion and disobedience for some time before they actually stop attending. That, or they see an influx of poisonous spirits that infiltrate every ministry and see other vile things up close if they were involved in heading a ministry or assisting a pastor, elder or some other clergy. This happens quite a bit more often and explains why some guys abruptly stop going altogether.
3. The apparent embracing of the homosexual spirit that has engulfed many of the upcoming generation of young adult men -- while shunning Apostle Paul-like men who have not abdicated their kingly thrones as men.
I cannot account for how often this has happened. I have heard it expressed MANY times, however. And most people in church know fully well that from the music ministry down to other ministries in the church that overtly gay, unconsciously feminine or just flat out boys and young men who are around 99% of the time and therefore have become effeminate have dominated the male populace in most church congregations in the United States. It's not a regional thing.
Side Note: I was close with a great number of my cousins on all sides of my family growing up; 2/3 of the ones I was around most of the time were girls. I'm not effeminate in the least. So using that as an excuse as to why so many of these boys act like this in church now is ludicrous.
SEGUE
4. The church seems content with playing to peoples' emotions and not dealing with reality and truth. Yes, emotion IS part of the worship order. God ordained it that way. After all, He gave us emotions as an accompaniment to the physical, spiritual and logical senses He instilled in us when it comes to understanding His Word and His entire being. However, far too often there is constant pandering to the emotional, hoopin' and hollerin', shouting that is not steeped in any real truth or purpose, but just something reminiscent of a scene of women watching Sex & The City or an episode of Desperate Housewives. This emotional appeal is naturally going to go over most men's heads, while appealing fully to women, as they dwell on the emotion far more often than men do. Most men require and desire substantial truth manifested in evidence (I know, I know, Hebrews 11:1) before the emotional appeals from the pulpit are going to have any effect.
For all that, most of them can get their emotional jollies by watching ball games, fights, playing sports, racing cars or doing whatever it is most of them do when they DON'T go to church.
Notice this isn't a worldwide problem -- but almost endemic to the United States. The church doesn't deal in truth or TRUE Holy Spirit works. The latter being the ultimate issue.
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