The Gary Work Ethic

As the coverage of Michael Jackson's death subsides, and it will eventually, the brief spotlight shone on Gary, Indiana will disappear as well.  The NYT gives the declining, forgotten? city some due as the birthplace of the King of Pop:

But was there something particular about Gary that the Jacksons took with them? Something particular to the place that made them great? Thomas Neal Jr., a lifelong Gary resident, thinks so.

“Joe Jackson believed you had to go get what you want to succeed,” Mr. Neal, 41, said. “That determination, that striving, was part of the Gary work ethic. Nobody came here unless they wanted to work.”

This is captured towards the end of the article that details Gary's creation as a company town for US Steel in 1906, and its declining fortunes and intense poverty since the 1960s and de-industrialization.  The reason I'm featuring this excerpt is because it captures an overlooked sentiment I so often describe here, a sentiment I think is part of what makes our country great and defies explicitly the notion of dependency.  That sentiment is striving, as I call it, and though Joe Jackson's abusive strategies to make his sons famous are not what I'd reify here, I like the focus on Gary's better past.  If only we could regularly embrace the positive aspects of our troubled cities and communities, we might wring a lot more success out of our varied social policies.

(Interior of the abandoned City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana by Craig Finlay)