Opinion: Anderson is Disconnected and Disengaged. Here’s How We Could Fix that and Potentially Save Lives

Anderson Township has had a rough few years. Sure, crime is low, businesses appear to be thriving, shopping and dining is ample, and it seems like a lot of people want to live here, but something is wrong. For starters, our children are dying by suicide.

There, I said it.

There’s an odd politeness about Anderson that keeps issues like these relatively quiet. I think there’s an old dumpster somewhere on Beechmont that stores all of our dirty laundry, and occasionally, it gets so full that it explodes, and everyone from the river to 32 can hear the boom.

Thankfully, local professionals and experts are already addressing the suicides. Mike Glen and all those within his Anderson Mental Health Collaborative are on to some great things. Keep an eye out for a Beechmont Story on Mike soon.

But what about the rest of us?

I think a lot of people keep tragedies like these on the down low out of respect for the families involved, which is admirable. But I contend that suicide, especially child suicide, is a matter of public health that deserves the attention of everyone, experts and non-experts alike.

This is a bigger problem than one man or even one network of professionals can handle, after all. These suicides are a social problem. They are a cultural problem. But most importantly, they are a community problem; Anderson Township community’s problem; and to be absolutely clear; they are my problem and your problem.

I respect the experts and the community leaders. We need our doctors and school board members and teachers on the case, but we can’t just pawn this issue off on them and go about our business. Sometimes deferring to the experts is just a sneaky way of not getting involved.

Do you know one of the reasons Greeks thrived in the ancient era? It’s because they had a deeply intimate relationship with their cities. In Athens, for example, civic engagement was not optional. You were required to engage in public affairs, and if you didn’t, they had a word for you: idiotes.

Ancient historian Thucydides wrote, “The man who took no interest in the affairs of state was not a man who minded his own business, but a man who had no business being in Athens at all.”

Speaking of men, where are you? At least the last four child suicides in our community have been boys. Our sons are not well, and yet the great majority of those who are getting involved here locally are women. Ladies, thank you for stepping up. I don’t know what we would do without you.

But who better to understand what our boys are going through than our fellow fathers and brothers. If anyone is going to reach our boys on a level deep enough to truly understand what is going on, it’s men. We have the shared experience necessary to make that connection.

According to a report I requested from the Epidemiology Division of Hamilton County Public Health, suicides for zip codes 45230, 45244, and 45255 from 2009 to 2019 totaled 86. Sixty-two of those suicides were males. That means 72% of the people killing themselves in our community are men and boys.

Men, we need you. Civic life used to be dominated by your energy and presence, but now we hardly see you. Where did you go? Who told you that you don’t matter anymore, and why did you believe them?

It’s only been a few weeks since the most recent tragedy, and almost everyone (men and women) have already wandered away from the issue. Time heals all wounds, especially here in Anderson. Most people have already moved on like nothing happened. With that kind of effort, it’s only a matter of time before a school administrator clicks on the tragic news email template that is saved on their computer, and just changes the names.

So, what is the cause?

Are students dying by suicide because of problems only students face? Maybe, but I don’t necessarily think so. I think there are some factors they experience in school life that are compounding already existing issues.

People are less happy, for example. You can blame it on COVID-19 or politics or the economy, but the bottom line is that people are becoming more and more unhappy. That means our children are probably even more unhappy. And this is not exclusive to Anderson Township by any means. Unhappiness is spreading across America. Suicide and drug overdose rates are soaring everywhere, and many of the causes are embedded directly in American culture.

There are many reasons people are unhappy, but I think one of the main reasons is because people feel lonely and disconnected.

We live in a village. We need each other for a myriad of reasons, even though we won’t admit it. That old sense of American individualism still lives on stubbornly among us, but it’s true. We need each other for services and assistance during emergencies, of course, but we also need each other for companionship. We are herd animals, and we all want to feel a sense of belonging within the herd. We want a place at the table.

And how do we attempt to connect with the herd? Well, for many, outside of their immediate families, cliques, and intimate social circles, the primary connection Anderson residents have with members of their community is through Facebook and social media.

Somehow, at some point, we all decided that our phones should reign as the public square for how the community interacts with each other. Do you see the problem with this already?

I say we put the public square back where it belongs—in public spaces where human beings congregate and talk. You know, in real life. Face to face.

Now I’m sure you’re asking well where do we go, and that’s a good question. Other than a place to discuss official government business and zoning, or a private restaurant or bar, where can Anderson community members go to congregate, network, and socialize?

Let me be more specific: Where is a place for local intellectuals to go and debate and share ideas? I know these individuals are out there. They are certainly not on Facebook, I can tell you that. They stopped engaging there around the time every local news story comment section transitioned from a marketplace of ideas to an episode of the Jerry Springer show.

Right now, there is probably some retired history professor with a 180 IQ sitting alone in his Anderson Township living room, reading his third book for the week, filling his mind with ideas that he’ll take with him to the grave because he has nobody to talk to. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of people on Facebook spamming the public square with all their copy and pasted biases.

How about artists? Where can they go to create and inspire each other? Does anyone know? Everyone knows where you can get a chicken sandwich, but nobody seems to know where you can go to contribute to the culture of the community, making it a more vibrant, and dare I say, enlightening place to live.

We need real life spaces that should foster networking, congregation, socializing, wellness, fellowship, art, and culture. This would benefit all age groups. In my years as a police officer with the Cincinnati Police Department, I was able to witness how well the black community did in this area.

There were always ways for people to get involved and spaces for them to congregate. And you never saw people in the black community trying to derail attempts to form a congregation by denouncing the city’s assistance in the matter as a burden to taxpayers. If they even tried to say that with a straight face, they’d be laughed out of the area.

Our problems in Anderson are different from those faced in Avondale, for example, but the solutions we need can be found in the same place; with each other.

Not to sound too much like a hippie here, but I think the system wants us dumb and disconnected. It wants us just functional enough to work, pay taxes, and consume. They want all of the thinking and innovation left up to them because they know better. We’re just supposed to tag along, eating chicken and maxing out our credit cards. 

When I call out the system, I’m not referring to leadership here in Anderson. The trustees and city leaders here are still very much locally entrenched and want what is best for the township. I truly believe that. But I don’t know if their vision for the future of Anderson Township is a vibrant one with an emphasis placed on people and culture, or an economic one with an emphasis on developers and bottom lines.

To be fair, it will probably be based on who engages with the politicians the most; the people or the developers. I know the developers have big plans for Anderson, but do we?

I can hear you now: “Vibrant? What does that even mean?” It’s a buzzword that gets thrown around a lot lately, and its meaning depends on who says it.

I think vibrancy just means life. If your community is vibrant, it means that it’s alive. It means people are moving around and engaging with each other. Ideas and innovation are emerging from it, people are visibly happy, and in the best-case scenario, your community is producing culture.

Shopping and dining are nice, but is it vibrant? That just means people are consuming—which is important for reasons of its own, but it does not necessarily mean the community is leaving a mark for itself on the world.

There is absolutely no reason Anderson Township cannot produce culture. We have artists here—and musicians, poets, and novelists – of all ages. They just aren’t connected. We also have eccentrics, God love them. I know this because I’ve met them.

The other thing about vibrancy is that vibrancy doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have groups of radicals splashing politically divisive murals all over the community, either. Art is not reserved solely for malcontents with social grudges. They certainly serve a purpose and have a right to express themselves, but they do not have to dominate the creative class of a community. Art can still be old-fashioned and inspirational, with an emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, form, and tradition.

If you have an appreciation for art or culture, and you set up a space for others to discuss, appreciate, and maybe even produce something beautiful—there—you just made the community more vibrant.

Let me put it like this: Even a group of old guys just sitting around on their old asses can add vibrancy to a community. Just ask these guys. The story I wrote about Dave and the McDonald’s crew got the most attention of any story I wrote.

Even as I was standing there with them that day, dozens of people smiled and waived to them. Those old guys lit up the area. But why? Because they were engaged. Their character was in motion and on public display, and it created an energy that allowed people to witness human beings doing something other than eating or shopping or going to work, and it made people happy.

Congregation is becoming a lost art form. Today, during a hike at one of our local parks, I happened upon an apparent staging area for a construction company. There were about a dozen company vehicles sitting in the parking lot, presumably waiting for orders to head to the job site.

Every single truck’s engine was running, occupied by one or two men looking at their phones. Sure, it was about 30 degrees outside, but historically that is nothing for men like these. It was not the weather keeping them apart, it was their phones. They were disconnected.

Think about if they were all outside of their vehicles talking. They would be laughing and smiling, enjoying each other’s company, and fostering a sense of camaraderie. But not today. If even construction workers have fallen to their phones, then we are all doomed.

Anderson Township, and all other suburbs in America, are currently standing at a crossroads. COVID-19, supply chain shortages, a shift to a potentially more self-reliant system, changing demographics, and other challenges are heading in our direction.

The world is changing fast, and so will we, but which direction will we go? What strategies will we develop? Will we remain unengaged and disconnected, where local tragedies continue, and leave our future solely in the hands of politicians and developers? Or will we come together constructively and in good faith, perhaps finding the best and brightest among us to foster a sense of belonging for all, and steer us toward a more meaningful, people-focused future?