November 23, 2019

November 23, 2019

It is the Thanksgiving season, the time to be grateful for family and friends. We did a driving trip to Amarillo to visit Aimee’s relatives and a flight to St Louis to visit mine. The Midwest trip conveniently coincided with a wedding that brought my whole family together. The reception was held at a downtown hotel ballroom with windows overlooking the old Courthouse and the Gateway Arch. I think of the Arch as America’s Modern Wonder of the World.

I haven’t flown into St Louis in many, many years. I was astounded to see how barren and depopulated vast sections of the city have become. A hundred years ago, it was the fourth largest city in the USA; it could easily fall below 300,000 in population next year. This is a shame considering its outstanding cultural assets. Unfortunately the citizenry of so many cities look at corporations as nuisances, or piggy banks to be raided, instead of the source of their livelihood and wealth.