Shelley Hurd wrote:Jim O'Bryan ....
churches and church going, serves both
a spiritual and social function in a city and community.
Church and Church going also reflect both the spiritual and the social sense of a community one could argue.
Old Lakewood perhaps was better able to support more Churches do to the atmosphere of, inclusion, hometown and neighborhood, community and connectedness which permeated our city.
In this New Lakewood, distain, distrust and
otherness is being fostered and propagated by those who have tasked themselves with the rebuilding, reshaping and reconfiguring our, once so loved, so desirable, so unique little City.
One will not find a kernel of Christian compassion nor values in what Lakewood is morphing into.
Sad, yes.
Understandable that the atmosphere of New Lakewood can not support Churches, which are built upon the drawing together people, and sense of community? Most defiantly
Shelly
I completely agree with what is becoming the perfect storm in Laakewood. Can we
weather it is now the question.
There is no room for community in the regional agenda. So the first thing that needs to
be destroyed is that sense of community. But it comes as a Trojan Horse, because to do
it any other way causes alarm. So build the trust, make it seem fun, and even seem like
community building, while working overtime behind the scenes to destroy that sense.
This is the regional agenda, and Lakewood is clearly in the bull's eye.
However if Lakewoodites, can bring some critical chops to the party, one can ride the
Trojan Horse right out of town on a rail. Lakewood's future is not Dunkin Doghnuts,
with their massive security lights, locked bathrooms, and now making residents want
to flee their homes in the vicinity of the too loud, squawk boxes screaming back, "What
kind of coffee do you want with your..." Nor the increase smell of burned beef fat wafting
down Gladys from Burger King and 5 Guys. It is in the Lakewood owned and operated stores
that respect the community, and come from within the community. The Root Café is a
perfect example, as is the WestEnd, Three Birds, Lion n Blue, etc.
I went into 5 Guys Burgers, (I like the burger) and went to the bathroom, and found it
locked, which to me is rude. I asked for a key and why it was locked and they answered
the people that were on the street, and worked with them advised them to lock their bathroom
doors or they could expect the worse. When asked who, they said local group and Caribou.
Meanwhile The Root Cafe has installed some of the nicest bathrooms in the city, with
gorgeous tile, bowls, art, etc, and no locks.
For some reason the sermon of Lakewood has become Economic Development AT ALL
COSTS! Nevermind the fact that retail is failing, and that everyone is now understanding
what Lakewood has/had is gold. No those pulling the strings are regionalist, and only
care about their bottom line. Close the schools for malls that will never be built, gut
the neighborhoods, and front doors to Lakewood for condos that will never be built. Work
the back hallways and the alleys for their singluar dreams, that will never be fulfilled, and
we must pay the cost forever.
Yes I believe you are right, the soul of Lakewood is under attack, and like the frogs in the
rainforest, the churches are the first to show the signs of trouble ahead.
If the regionalist have their way, we will be the next jail, the next dump, the home for
the criminally insane, and the halfway home of tomorrow, while they escape with the
gold taken from us in their pockets. Those that preach it, are not the friends of Lakewood,
but the Trojan Horses of a bleak dark future.
FWIW
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