May 31, 2006
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: at length
New enthusiasm for Ashland’s “undesirables”
By Vanessa Houk
Ashland
After reading recent articles in the Daily Tidings about the growing concern about Ashland’s “undesirable element” I wondered if I had been paying attention. So, for several weeks now I have been searching the Plaza for undesirables. I have come up short handed.
I was still trying to give these outspoken critics quoted in the paper the benefit of the doubt. Maybe my eyes have become as liberal as my heart, so when my 70-something parents came for a visit, I asked them if they felt unsafe in downtown Ashland. We all had a good laugh and then they went and spent some “tourist dollars.” So much for the urban legend.
This fascinates me. It appears a caste system exists in my lovely little town. So I didn’t give up. Numerous times now, I have gone into the Plaza and watched people. I finally decided that maybe I am just missing these shady, panhandling folks. So my infant daughter and I walked down to the Plaza and sat for a while.
As we sat there, I thought I found one. A motorcycle parked near us and a longish haired man got off the bike. As he passed by us, my heart sank a little as I could see he wore a T-shirt that advertised one of the restaurants on the Plaza and was just going to work. I kept looking, determined to finally see what others have been talking about. A teenage boy passed by, smoking a cigarette none-the-less. I thought he could surely be an undesirable, until I saw that he noticed the baby and quickly moved his smoke away from her. So much for the teen element being mean.
I saw a few middle-aged women with shopping bags, but as hard as I tried to fear them, I just couldn’t jumpstart those emotions. The older couple coming out of ABC with drinks was not frightening either. By now I was getting as bored and tired as Grace was, so we got up and headed home.
As we passed the Methodist Church I was thinking about how ironic it is that we are bank poor but wealthy beyond our imaginations. We’re raising our family in this town and we’ve invested in causes that we believe in. Ironically, if classism is an Ashland value, I guess I only needed to look in the mirror to see an undesirable.
At least I figure that I am in good company.
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