A Thanksgiving for our community

Mark Gregory, Editor/The Sentinel-Record
Mark Gregory, Editor/The Sentinel-Record

It's been a rough couple of weeks for the citizens of Hot Springs and Garland County, following the storms that moved through the area, leaving thousands without power, and the promise of more bad weather this weekend.

But as we approach a holiday that was set apart by President Lincoln in 1863 to observe a day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," it's easy to say we have a lot to be thankful for this year, without a hint of triteness that sometimes pervades this holiday.

An acquaintance of mine recently stirred my thankful spirit by noting that Thanksgivings typically take place around single events, but in Hot Springs there have been so many events for which we should be thankful that one must take pause.

This year, if you haven't noticed, the people of the city's neighborhoods and its government are holding hands with an attitude toward making quality-of-life changes.

For that we must be thankful, after years of entropy that threatened to erode the progress that started in the mid 1980s.

The acquaintance pointed to the recent celebration of the The David F. Watkins Memorial Tunnel Park, where 150 Park Avenue neighbors gathered to thank the city staff and encourage donations to make things even better.

Come on, folks, think about that: The neighborhood raised more than $4,000 with a potluck dinner on a Sunday evening! I'm not given to hyperbole, but I would think that raised a few hopeful eyebrows elsewhere in the community.

Such celebrations are the foundation of growth that speak to better things yet to happen.

My acquaintance believes, though, that the story is bigger than meets the eye. Many changes over the past several years are the culmination of neighborhood efforts driven by individuals passionate about the quality of life in their own neighborhoods, he says. They've begun to take stock of their own neighborhoods and started to prioritize those things important to their quality of life. Community Development Block Grant moneys are being concentrated around development of neighborhoods. City directors are committed to taking one neighborhood or district at a time and investing concentrated sums of CBDG funds rather than spreading money throughout the community in order to make the most significant impact.

Our community has begun to experience collective efforts in the neighborhoods of Whittington Valley, Park Avenue, the Gateway Community, and downtown where neighborhood park equipment is upgraded; community gardens are developed; more than 3 miles of sidewalks are installed; bus stops offer weather shelters; installation of water conserving landscapes are being developed; water infrastructure is updated; dilapidated and dangerous structures are being removed; new small business are beginning to move into these areas and flourish -- and the list goes on.

I've likely quoted from this portion of the Thanksgiving proclamation before, but it bears repeating each year to remind us of a time when true Civil War divided this country. Here and now, seeing the unity in our own community, may it grow throughout the land during this season of Thanksgiving: "And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union."

Editorial on 11/26/2015

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