Today I had the chance to attend a meeting held by the Columbus Foundation to talk about Columbus’ future identity. There were about 70 important people in the room… each with significant talents and histories. The idea for group was to hear some of the work that has been done to figure out just “who we are and what we do” here in Columbus. The variety of personalities in the room was an ocean of difference, but many similar sounding comments came out of the session.
I felt the comments my group developed while in the session were a narrative version of many of the other comments. Overall, this city needs to promote examples of what IS happening and the people that shape our world. My analogy was that Columbus has been consistently trying to sell khakis to the world… when in actuality we should be selling superhero costumes. Unlike Cleveland, who just removed the giant banner of their solo hero (after he quit on a city that loved him)… I’d see Columbus as having many banners. I’d love to see banners across the city with the various people leading our community.
Sure.. we have your known superheroes like Gordon Gee and Archie Griffin. But there are heroes everywhere in this town. I would love to see the city embrace those making a difference. I was inspired by seeing Kent Rigsby get an award… why wouldn’t other restaurant owners, community activitists, civic leaders, and personalities get the same attention. Columbus is blamed for being an “everyday town”.. but I see it as extraordinary in its champions.
I guess my question is… who do you see as Columbus’ heroes? Wouldn’t it be nice to see a hundred banners of our heroes around the city rather than just one?
