Is Bakersfield 'city of righteousness?'
| Thursday, Jul 02 2009 06:42 PM
Last Updated Monday, Jul 06 2009 04:49 PM
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robshock -- I think history has proven those who proclaim themselves righteous to be least of all.
glitzyorbit -- Bakersfield is still a generous, giving, loving community, yin and yang.
molassa -- rather stickers say positive things than "I'm an (expletive deleted) who can't drive," which should be on many cars in this city.
SusanReep -- Righteousness has a neg. connotation. being good, fair and just isn't the same. Righteousness implies you have the best or only way.
mysoulishome -- "Righteous" rings a little too Old Testament for my taste. Much evil has been perpetrated in the name of righteousness.
robshock -- I think history has proven those who proclaim themselves righteous to be least of all.
glitzyorbit -- Bakersfield is still a generous, giving, loving community, yin and yang.
molassa -- rather stickers say positive things than "I'm an (expletive deleted) who can't drive," which should be on many cars in this city.
SusanReep -- Righteousness has a neg. connotation. being good, fair and just isn't the same. Righteousness implies you have the best or only way.
mysoulishome -- "Righteous" rings a little too Old Testament for my taste. Much evil has been perpetrated in the name of righteousness.
Images:
Michael Fagans / The Californian Ken Hart, owner of Master Graphics Screenprinting, shows one of his "Bakersfield: City of Righteousness" bumper stickers outside his business is Bakersfield onMonday afternoon.
When Bakersfield's city fathers and mothers approved the slogan, "Bakersfield: Life as it should be" a few years ago, some locals greeted the decision with applause and exclamations of civic pride.
Others simply asked, "Can they be serious?"
Proponents argued that Bakersfield is a unique city with a lot going for it, including friendly, caring residents, a diverse and exciting culture, and great weather (except in the summer).
Skeptics cited a litany of the city's social ills, from high rates of crime and teen pregnancy to bad air, chronic unemployment and massive income gaps between rich and poor.
Now that debate may be reawakened as a new slogan of sorts is being promoted by local graphic printer Ken Hart, the owner of Master Graphics.
Hart has come up with a bumper sticker he's giving away to anyone who asks that proclaims, "Bakersfield: City of Righteousness."
Hart noted that the San Joaquin Valley's southernmost big city has long suffered the slings and arrows of outrageously bad press.
Bakersfield's backwater image was the butt of countless jokes by the Tonight Show's Johnny Carson. And more recently a blogger in Santa Barbara described Bakersfield as one of the "acupuncture points of humor."
The image of Bako as the armpit of California has apparently lingered, if not in the minds of outsiders, then in the insecurities of those who stubbornly insist on calling this town home.
Of course, Hart's invention includes religious connotations not contained in the "life as it should be" slogan. God, he said, was instrumental in placing the idea in his heart.
"God always thinks better of us than we think of ourselves," Hart said as he battled the summer heat at his business near the Garces Circle on 30th Street.
Grabbing a nearby Bible, Hart cited Romans (4:17): "And God who gives life to the dead calls those things that do not exist as though they did."
In other word's, Hart says, with God's help even Bakersfield can become something extraordinary, something, well -- righteous.
Hart hopes to create a new mindset locally, "whether or not you're a man or woman of faith."
It all started more than two years ago when he introduced the concept to his downtown Bakersfield house of worship, Garden Community Church, Hart said. Since then, the theme has caught on at his church and other local churches, he said.
The 42-year-old is aware that some will react with skepticism or even disdain to the notion that Bakersfield has somehow been smiled upon by God.
"Wishful thinking is what it is," said David Albright, pastor of Alive Center in Oildale. Albright, who helps organize and operate a food delivery program for the mentally ill, said he is always concerned when the righteous feel they must announce their righteousness.
Besides, he said, actions speak louder than bumper stickers.
"There's a desperate need out there in our community," he said. "It's sometimes better to serve quietly without tooting your own horn. Anyone can put a bumper sticker on a car."
Jessica Eveland, a member and assistant to the pastor at Garden Community Church, said the righteousness theme doesn't stem from a feeling of arrogance or superiority, it comes from a belief that the city can become better. It's an acknowledgement, she said, that Bakersfield has much more going for it than the city's decades-old negative image would suggest.
"'Bakersfield: City if Righteousness' is a statement of hope," she said.
"People say we're the armpit of the state," she added. "We're not what people say we are."
When Eveland, who is from Southern California, married her Bakersfield-bred husband, she made him promise they would never live in Bakersfield.
That's how powerful Bakersfield's negative image can be, she said. And yet, when they did move here several years ago, Eveland found that she loved the community and the people here.
"I had my own ideas about Bakersfield," she said. "But I found that Bakersfield is unlike any other place."
One example, she said is Bakersfield's continued ranking as one of the top givers to the anti-cancer effort known as Relay for Life.
"There's such a sense of community here," she said. "There's such a heart for service and giving."
Hart says he's not blind to Bakersfield's problems.
"We have huge, huge issues here," he said. "Absolutely.
"But even where sin abounds, grace does much more abound."
