Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Living in Salisbury, N.C. was quite an experience. It was the first time I ever lived in a sleepy little Southern town that has undergone years of mismanagement and cronyism. It’s pretentions to being of consequence, of exuding vibrancy, and even being historical remain a major source of amusement. Many decent folks dwell in Salisbury and among them I count a good number of close friends.
Frankly I missed a quality of life in Salisbury I was accustomed to coming from a larger urban area: Philadelphia with its far more stimulating urban atmosphere of very bright minds, culture, large book and technology stores, and to be able to immerse myself in what nourishes and stimulates me. For me that’s a very important ingredient for a place to live. I am so glad I had access to a high-speed computer and a VOIP phone during my stay in Salisbury.
Well low and behold over a month ago my wife received a job offer to work in the Madison, Wisconsin public schools in an area of interest (gifted children) in which she is currently acquiring a Master’s degree at UNC Charlotte. I’m glad for her.
Madison, Wisconsin, “the Berkeley of the Midwest”, exemplifies what true progressivism is when it works. It doesn’t trade on the pretense of progressivism like Salisbury. Salisbury is not even remotely progressive–it is a town weighed down by cronyism and parasitic corruption that is glaring to anyone who carefully examines it. It is a town in dire need of a turnaround and reform. Likely that reform will come late after the city goes to the bottom likely within the next 16 months.
If you desire to see a city that really works and serves its people come visit Madison. It has everything. It is a city of somewhere around 240,000 inhabitants and the University of Wisconsin. It’s the state capital–its a technology hub–it’s a gig and half city. There is culture here–anything you want. Several newspapers and a lot of government watchdogs to keep government honest. They have a number of large sized cooperative businesses here including a great gas station called “PDQ” and a great cooperative Supermarket called “Hi-Vi” where the employees own the supermarket. When Salisbury bellies up chapter 9 style and it will before long–cooperative ventures may be one of the very best ways to build businesses from within. I’m willing to parade visitors from the Bury around to see what’s up with these success stories.
The brothers running Skinny Wheels would be convinced they died and went to heaven if they came to Madison which surely must be the bicycle capital of the Universe. I have never seen so many bicycles on the streets here as I have seen in Madison. The downtown/university streets are divided equally between bike lanes and motor vehicle lanes. The bike lanes are well designed here–haven’t seen yet where someone would be sent hurtling by an opening car door. The park systems and trails around the lake areas are awesome.
The Rowan Free Press will continue on until reform comes to Salisbury or it dies outright. I am not the only person writing for Rowan Free Press by a longshot.
Love to see Salisbury turn around. However it has a whole lot of hoops to jump through before that comes about.
By the way for those people who persist in calling me a blogger–get your facts straight. I’m a published author of somewhere in the vicinity of 18 books over the years. None of them self-published. My books have been non-fiction works on science and self-help and a handful of early Western novels. I’ve been published in United States, England, Australia, and India. I’m used to publishing in far larger formats than newspapers and have more higher level writing experience since 1968 than the entire staff of the Salisbury Post glued together.
Here’s one I published with Tab/McGraw Hill. “Star Gazing Through Binoculars: A Complete Guide to Binocular Astronomy. Scroll down:
http://books.google.com/books/about/Star_gazing_through_binoculars.html?id=znXvAAAAMAAJ
The 2nd edition of “Apache Warrior” Zebra Books:
The English Edition of “South of Nogales:
Hell Riders by Steve Mensing
Your Emotional Power:
Gold in the Black Hills:
A list of many of my former publications under Steve Mensing and Stephen Mensing:
https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=steve+mensing&=&gws_rd=ssl
I will return.
