Winston Churchill Comes to Rocky Mount, NC – Happy New Year 2018

Let’s not think of New Year’s Eve as merely a passing occasion we celebrate on December 31st, but as a boundary that we cross that leads to new thinking.  In these early January days, let us reflect on what revitalization means when we refer to the revitalization of Rocky Mount.

Let me explain Winston Churchill’s presence. Since I began writing the Main Street blog, I find I am like a computer that has the ability to run multiple programs at the same time. The Main Street blog is always running in the background no matter what else I am doing. That’s how Winston Churchill has joined us.

I’m reading a novel called Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante, set in the period of our history when in 1941 Winston Churchill addressed the U.S. Congress. His aim was to convince the American public that the wisest plan was to create an effective alliance that could win the war and preserve the peace afterward. When I read the following quote from the speech, my mind switched programs and I saw how this excerpt pertains to Rocky Mount.

“I will say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below, of which we have the honor to be the faithful servants. It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come, The British and American people will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.”

These words,,,, for our own safety and for the good of all, suggest to me that here in Rocky Mount, it would be a wise plan to renew our efforts in creating an effective alliance across the board, regardless of politics or race, in order to walk together in majesty into the future.  Churchill’s words inspired a standing, cheering ovation in Congress. We need a united alliance in this new year which will serve as inspiration in our revitalization efforts.

Aren’t we sick to death of hearing the phrase…Rocky Mount has a race problem. Isn’t it the height of embarrassment in 2018 to have this problem in the first place? I want to stand in the middle of Main Street and holler, “Get over yourselves and let’s get on with it” to anyone who gets mileage from this problem or throws gasoline on that fire.

People say its all about power. I believe that. Power to give our community and its citizens a safe place to live, a fine education, great health care, reasonable taxes, neighborhoods where good people look out for one another, all the while fostering pride in our story. With Churchill’s words under our wings, let us go forth into this new year rejoicing in the power of an effective alliance that could accomplish great things in the coming year.