Another test of resilience

It’s hard to know where to begin a discussion about the Work Ethic Camp’s impending transition to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility—but I know how to end it.

We will get through this.

We had a series of downtown fires in the early 20th century and, in 1928, tornadoes that touched down on the west side of McCook, starting with the 700 block of West 4th Street and demolishing houses all the way to the canyon at the city’s north edge. An old Gazette article from Walt Sehnert tells us the twisters that day left as many as 1,000 people homeless.

McCook endured the worst of the Dust Bowl years between 1934 and 1936, and of course, the Republican River flood of May 31, 1935—one of Nebraska’s deadliest natural disasters. Walls of water swept through the valley after torrential rains, killing more than 100 people, including over 40 in Red Willow County, and leaving thousands displaced. Bridges, farms, rail lines, and homes were torn away, with whole communities cut off or destroyed in the surge.

We dealt with it.

We were proud when the Army air base arrived in 1943, then lost it just as quickly at the war’s end in 1945. Then, we had a war of our own, buying part of the old air base in 1999 for a potential well field, only to find it unsuitable and sell it off in 2003.

We saw Walmart devastate our downtown in the early 2000s, then watched Norris Avenue rebuild. Then in 2014, a group of local politicians-gone-rogue defied democratic will and planted an unwanted jail in the middle of our historic downtown. We even survived the capriciousness of the federal government with the COVID lockdown that shuttered small, locally owned businesses while the out-of-town retail giant stayed open.

…and we lived through it.

More recently, we cheered the new pool, watched the YMCA remodel advance and saw plans for a sports complex take shape. The high school reconstruction and renovation effort remains an ongoing story with the final chapter yet to be written. These are all good things, though not without expense, disruption and the stress that comes with change.

Like the rest of the country, we survived the Great Depression, nearly a dozen wars, gas shortages, more than one recession, the assassination of a president and the resignation of another. We lived through Watergate, stagflation and the farm crisis of the 1980s. We endured 9/11, the wars that followed and the housing bubble of 2008. Somehow, after all that, we even survived disco, pet rocks, mood rings, the Macarena, Beanie Babies, and the Ice Bucket Challenge.

…but we made it.

Our current cinéma de merde raises new questions: is there a path for growth and economic development? Can it create jobs? Will new hiring bring people into McCook, or simply hollow out the Sheriff’s department so recently rebuilt? We should also ask how many organizations rely on volunteer help from WEC inmates, and what impact this transition will have on residential lots soon to be offered on the north side of the sports complex.

It’s also clear that, as a result of this experience, some politicians will never dare utter the word “transparency” again without ducking to avoid incoming ripened fruit. City and county leaders—long gifted at saying nothing—have now hired mouthpiece to say nothing for them. The smell of pending litigation is in the air....

Whatever it is, we will endure this too.