Naturally, the old Rust Belt dominates the list, and as a native Buckeye myself, it saddens me to see four Ohio cities in the top ten. It's the first entry on the list, however, that gets my attention: Canton-Massillon, Ohio.
That's where I was born and raised.
During my Heartland childhood, I always knew that I lived at the center of the nation's industrial base. After graduation, many of my classmates spurned college in favor of returning to family farms or, with the right connections, stepping into high-paying jobs in the mills.Stainless steel, industrial bearings and plastics. Tires and auto assembly. Meat-packing, jelly and potato chips. In return for honest labor and union dues, the promise of employment for life.
The family farm, as I knew it in my youth, vanished 20 years ago. While a handful of manufacturing jobs and nominal "corporate headquarters" remain, most are mere tokens, nothing more than public-relations placeholders for multi-national operations.
What's left is a gash across Middle America, a wound that's still bleeding jobs, talent and the vitality that once staked a proud country to its bright future. Worst of all, it's become infected with the despair of a generation increasingly unlikely to finish high school.
If we're looking for villains, sure, we can point bitter fingers at heartless capitalists, incompetent government and impotent unions -- but assigning blame changes nothing.
The shelves at the company store are bare and probably offshore. We can't (and shouldn't) rely on our government to rescue us. Organized labor, without workers to organize, is an anachronism.
It's time to close the scrapbook on our memories of mills and milking parlors that built and nourished a nation. Those days are gone, and pining for them won't help us.The task of rebuilding our cities, towns and countryside falls to those who stayed and those of us who came back. Yes, we're older now, older than the rest of the country, and maybe we're wise enough to see what kind of economic tomorrow we need to create for our Heartland, our home.
We can once again lead America into its future, but this time we'll do it by example, not as a supplier. Whatever we do over the next decade -- everything we make, raise, grow and teach -- we must do for ourselves.
We need to reclaim the Heartland for our own.
