Saturday, July 5, 2008

Where it began?

I can't begin to knowing.

larue asked nicely:
"Dude, love your writing, but what the phook IS the problem(s) with the district you speak of?

I don't get what the issues are . . . . and if the reader can't get the issues, they can't buy into your posits . . .

What are the issues that concern you in this district?"


I guess this is a larue way of saying What the Fuck are you talking about?

The question in itself is part of the answer to it. Sadly I've heard it before.
But strap in and I'll give it another shot. And maybe, there will be something in the telling that pertains to something about the way of our things and our approaches to them.

Nobody cares about Proviso High School District 209 and its problems. In the grander scheme this is an appropriate response to a situation that affects a limited, powerless, sliver of a geographical flyspeck on the personal threat radar screen.

So WHY waste time, words and space writing about such things? We got bigger problems. The world itself is perched on the edge of an abyss.

First some nutznbolts. Proviso Twp. High School District 209 was established in Township 39 North East of the Third Principal Meridian shortly after the centuries turned 20. It was another misanthropic time in America. A quick look at the Wiki shows a world in turmoil. Six months into his second term a disgruntled anarchist shot President McKinley. The Boxer Rebellion was blooming in China. We were fresh off a trouncing of Spain in the Spanish-American War. William Jennings Bryant was railing against U.S. Imperialism. Half of what is now the United States were still taming the Wild West while the Cubs were playing baseball in Chicago, which itself, had rebuilt after the tragic fire of 1871 and was expanding westward as well. It was annexing territory -that hadn't the foresight to establish its borders and incorporate- in massive and methodical ways.

Township 39 North like every other non-fractional township surveyed, after standardization, contained 36 square miles of territory laid out in accordance with the Land Ordinance of 1785 (Jefferson). In the early 20th Century its residents were largely refugees from the Chicago Fire who were rebuilding as well. A few established settlements along the stage coach and railroad routes out of Chicago, but mostly farmers, millers, traders and lumber mills who harnessed power from the Des Plaines river. The other major growth business for the region was cemetaries and allied funeral services. These included Monument Makers, florists and hospitality providers; Beer Halls, Taverns Picnic Groves and Inns. A lot of acreage in TWP 39 N is devoted to cemetary plots.

Growth came rapidly after the fire as merchants and magnates joined their brethren in the tranquil country outside the ruins while remaining a short train or trolley ride away from their industry. Some of them didn't particularly like the idea of Chicago politics joining the equation.
They'd been there; done that. The peripheral, amatuer politics were scummy enough without bringing the pros in. Some of the more inventive new residents saw opportunity to tailor their living conditions more to their liking.

Have your eyes glazed over yet? Hey, you asked! To know who you are, you must appreciate where you came from, remember from whence you came, and reconcile the incongruities.
Yeah, but what the phook does that have to do with today? Why is Rehctaw telling us this?
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode when we will learn of treachery, Temperance, class, blue collar/white collar towns, land deals, corruption and intrigue. How clever, if somewhat unethical folks can "do things legally" which have unintended larger consequence.

All based on a few silly lines drawn on a map by Lewis and Clark?

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