Have we lost our civic pride?

I have lived in Tyler for the last 13 years. During this time I have grown to love this city as if it were my hometown. I love that our taxpayers see fit to provide a better park system than almost any other city I visit. That is why Thursday was so painful to me as a father, a member of this community and a taxpayer of Smith County.

I arrived at Southside park as I do almost every Thursday, taking my daughter to play before her martial arts class. This trip has become a great way for us to spend time together out of the house and to encourage her to interact socially with other children.

We approached her favorite swing and I saw someone had spray painted it. As I looked more deeply around the park I saw that they had painted other fixtures as well and I was asked why this happened by my daughter. She is 7 and still has trouble understanding why people do things just to hurt others.

Clearly this is a situation where the only goal was to destroy the happiness that this park brings to countless youth of this community. No real damage was done, all of the park fixtures work exactly as they did before, so there was nothing to gain by doing so. The real pain inflicted is on the soul of the community.

This act shows our citizens that there are members of our community that want to destroy things just for the fun of it, and that makes me very sad. Had I done a similar thing when I was a child and my father found out about it, my Saturday morning would be spent with a scrub brush and apologizing to everybody that came to the park that day.

It pains me to honestly believe that so many parents today would not care, at least not enough to teach their child that they had done wrong and hold them accountable to their community. I think that day is as much a part of the past as a vcr.

I travel through many cities regularly and have seen great examples of how a neighborhood can look when the residents have a sense of pride about where they live, and how it can look when they don’t. It does not matter if the neighborhood is wealthy or poor, the racial demographics or the size of the city or town...

As Americans I think we have lost our civic pride and I would hope that this letter would serve as a wake up call to all of our residents. Together we can do small things that add up to a monumental difference where we live. Pick up that piece of trash, it doesn’t matter who threw it there. If you see someone littering or vandalizing something either address it or call law enforcement so they can.

If we all do just a little to improve how our community looks, it will translate into more pride in our town and that pride can be very contagious. And that pride is what will start our nation toward healing and growth and away from fracture and decline.

Please help me make our city better starting with your street, your park, your city, your state and your country.

John Allen

Tyler

People with Parkinson’s need a plan for hospital stays

April is Parkinson’s disease awareness month. An estimated one million people in the United States live with Parkinson’s disease, the second-most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. Symptoms vary, but can include tremors, cognitive impairment and balance issues that lead to falls and hospitalizations.

Research has found that three out of four people with Parkinson’s do not receive medications on time when hospitalized. When this occurs, two out of three experience unnecessary complications. With an ongoing pandemic, it is imperative for people with Parkinson’s and their loved ones in the East Texas community to be prepared for a hospital stay and shorten it when possible.

As one of 100 Parkinson’s Foundation Ambassadors, I urge our Parkinson’s community to order an Aware in Care kit or download it online to be prepared for a hospital stay. Each kit has resources to help a person with Parkinson’sadvocate for their best care, like a hospital action plan, medication form and medical alert card.

My role is to proactively meet with people with Parkinson’s, support groups, hospital staff and clinicians to highlight the problem and the importance of timely dispensing of the mediations on time, every time.

Together, we can help the Parkinson’s Foundation make life better for people with Parkinson’s. Learn more through the Foundation Helpline at 1-800-4PD-INFO (473-4636) or visit Parkinson.org/AwareInCare.

Melinda Hermanns, PHD, RN, PMH-BC, CNE, PN/FCN, ANEF

Tyler