Today we offer a peek at our town.
We refer not to the defunct weekly local newspaper “Our Town,” nor to the folksy, nostalgic 1938 play of that same name, which won a Pulitzer prize.
Instead, this is just a quick read of the front page and two inside pages of the local newspaper, a publication that hardly could be accused of trying to put a negative spin on our community, except when it comes to pandering to social justice warriors.
But, despite that lean, today’s edition is heavy with reports on all the warts that afflict us.
Begin with the horrific crime rate, often involving actors from outside the area. The banner headline on today’s A1 reads “Murder suspect waives extradition from Vegas.”
This would be a murder suspect whom you may recall from the surveillance video image showing him wearing a coat of many colors – not the Biblical sort – after allegedly gunning down a man in Moxham.
This young adult, identified by the newspaper as being from Pittsburgh (not Philadelphia, for a change), was nabbed in Las Vegas.
A local murder may have been solved. Now about all the rest . . .
Security problems at the Westmont Hilltop School District were the topic of another small front page headline. It referred to a review of security stemming from threat issues at the school district.
Tucked away low on the right side of the front page was a story with the headline “Feds: Drug probe stretched from Johnstown to Mexico.” The story didn’t have much in the way of details on the Johnstown connection, just a vague quote. But who would deny we have a major drug problem in our area?
At the bottom of the page is a tease for an inside story on A3, “Johnstown man arrested after shots, three-hour standoff.”
While turning inside to read that tale, one must pass A2, with the headline: “Police: ER patient jailed after assault of nurse.”
That happened at our largest local hospital.
Back to the shooting and standoff report on A3, it allegedly included messaging involving smoking crack.
Area apologists might observe that since the local newspaper doesn’t publish on Tuesdays, this was a two-day accumulation of crime news.
Point taken. Except, even if this is two day’s worth of crime, is it an acceptable level for a small town such as ours? I’d argue no on that one.
The decline of this area has been frequent fodder for this blog.
Today’s newspaper is but another example proving the point of how Our Town has gone bad.
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