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Selling Jacksonville

The Source

I wrote a play to benefit Downtown Quincy, featuring the Lincoln/Douglas debates held there. Like many civic projects the event took way too many meetings, way too much travel back and forth for conversations we could have had via email, and way too much conference time that I could have spent researching and writing, but. . .face it. . .some people really to go to meetings so I succumbed, the play went well, and Quincy was happy. The highlight of the night for me was when my 90-year-old father was given a speeding ticket inside the city limits on the way to the play. He happened to sit beside the mayor and handed the citation to his honor who eventually took care of it. Most towns our size have civic-minded souls who try their best to sell the town’s benefits to the outside world, but Jacksonville seems to have more than it’s share. For fear of leaving someone out I won’t even attempt to name all the organizations that pour their time and energy into making Jacksonville known to the rest of the world and I applaud them. They are truly the engine that makes the town run.