OUR TOWN

A recent Huffington Post headline declared a thirty percent unemployment rate in a Michigan town dominated by one large employer that was hit hard by the economic downturn.

The folks in these rural towns are hurting badly. As plants close and jobs are lost the local economies lose the momentum to keep going. Purchasing power drops, inventories for everything imaginable become restricted, transportation slows. The ripple effect of thousands of small towns shakes the core of our economy.

These small towns, the backbone of the American economy, ripped apart and dismantled by Wall Street behemoths that could care less about their plight will eventually make a comeback.

The economy will survive and we will have learned many lessons. Lessons about trust, integrity and compassion. Hopefully, the failings of previous administrations to protect the flock will be corrected. We are a resilient people.

Our own town, that of the ad community, has also been hit hard. I have seen many jobs disappear as smart, valuable people become discouraged and move on to other career choices. Yet I am confident that we will see a reversal of fortunes and encourage those of us in the industry to hang on.

The words to the song below, sung by James Taylor, say it best.