TonyPiazza.com

Muncie at a crossroads: Industrialization to Information

It's been awhile since I posted here. Life has a way of keeping you busy. I've been out of graduate school and away from the CICS experience for almost three years now, and what an eventful 3 years I've had. I got married, bought a house, got my first job, saw my first child be born, got laid off from work, saw the loss of family members (both of my grandmothers passed last year), saw the loss of a friend (Tom Hammond, news director at WLBC... and a good friend, who passed last March), dabbled in part-time odd-jobs while off work (including doing the news at WLBC, indulging my radio hobby fully, and trying my best to fill the all too big shoes of the late Tom Hammond), being re-hired at the company the released me months earlier, and juggling new opportunities that have sent my way... I am sharing this not out of wanting to share my own story (and certainly not for a sympathy card!), but to frame the larger story of my community, my home: Muncie, Indiana. I've had the choice, several times, if I should stay here or branch out... and each time, I've made the choice to anchor myself in Muncie, because I can see what lie ahead for this city, this region and this state. But, for many, seeing that change is a hard reality to face. This was quite tangible when the old Chevrolet plant in Muncie, an anchor for the industrial economy in our city for years, recently was demolished. The emotions of that day, and the emotions of coping with that larger change, that transition from the old industry to the new information economy, were recently captured in an AP story. That article, available here http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jaxy4L9bGZvMdZW6na4LbwhoDUKgD8VC23CG0, was viewed to great interest by me. Having gotten an interesting view from it, and thinking no more of it, I shared the link with a few friends and colleagues... among them, Dr. Jay Gillette. Dr. Gillette, ever one to see an opportunity for what it truly is, turned that article back around with a comment and a challenge. And now today, I'm responding to that challenge... and you can too, after the jump...