Committing Place-ism

"'Locality gives art,' said Robert Frost, and any step we take to bring back locality, to resuscitate the parochial, is an act of hope and love and beauty."

That quote is taken from an article by Bill Kauffman that appeared in Utne Reader in 2000 - "Passport to Main Street." I don't generally agree with Kauffman, a paleo-conservative, devout Catholic anarchist who glorifies progressive activists like Dorothy Day yet aligns himself most closely with Ron Paul. As a social democrat who believes strongly in single-payer health care, Kauffman's anti-federalist arguements are lost on me. But what Kauffman is most well-known for--being a "localist"--is something I too can align myself with. Kauffman's essays focus on tradition and "place-ism." [The fact that he is from upstate NY and attended the University of Rochester helps to woo me towards his side...] In a nutshell, Kauffman's view of localism promotes honoring your roots, committing yourself to the place and the people you come from, beautifying your neighborhood and getting to know your neighbors. He knocks the idea of moving elsewhere for a better job, or better pay, or for the thrill and excitement of some place "new."

"Passport to Main Street" has crossed my mind many times since I first read it several years ago. Living back in Rochester has brought issues such as urban renewal and brain-drain to the forefront of my social consciousness, and when I think of young people leaving my city--including nearly all of my childhood and high school friends--I cannot help but think of Kauffman's words:

"...they sent their children out to earn college degrees, whereupon they took jobs so far away that, in millions of sad cases, grandparents had been stripped of any function beyong shipping video games to the little brats come Christmas. But at least the grandkids attend good schools with lots of computers and high average SATs. This whole notion of moving somewhere to take a job is one of the sharpest and cleanest of class dividers. Virtually everyone who lives and works in Washington or on Wall Street has migrated for money or power. It is almost beyond their ken why someone would not move when 'opportunity' rears its meretricious head."

To be clear - Kauffman doesn't knock the idea of traveling, or the importance of seeing other places. I myself was eager to live in a new city once I graduated college, and grateful that I had the chance to do so. For seven years I lived in four cities other than Rochester; I didn't intend on being back in my hometown so soon, and I am still open to living some place other than here again for a period of time. But this growing trend of leaving the place you come from and never returning again--or of raising your children in a city where they have no grandparents or relatives of any sort - this I do not understand. Why? Because other cities are more beautiful or have better architecture? Because they have more shops and nicer restaurants? Because you can make more money?

When I was deciding whether or not to buy this house, I thought often about my love for Rochester and my spoken commitment to this city - and one of my deciding factors in going forward with the purchase was the desire to truly put my money where my mouth is - to walk the walk. If I am to promote my city to friends and strangers alike, then I should begin by investing in it myself. (As Ghandi said, "our contributions to the world's progress must therefore consist in setting out own house in order first.")

Buying my house was meant to be my first real contribution to the place I come from, my first act towards renewing and beautifying the place that I love and the streets that nurtured me. Yes, sometimes I regret the decision--particularly these days, when real construction is underway and it's hard to envision the completed project. But I return to my original reasoning, knowing that I did this, ultimately, as an act of 'hope and love and beauty.'

"When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. Buy from your neighbor. Grow your own. Turn off the TV. Vote for Pat--or Harry or Joe or the Greens or the lady next door. Read your ancestors. Put flowers on their graves. Paint your block. Avenge what is lost; laugh. Commit place-ism. With joy and impunity."