Mark’s Musings – November 14, 2018

Mark Fortune

I searched my brain through and through this week for a “theme” for this column. In particular I was looking for something positive. I know it’s out there and that’s especially true for the economy and jobs. And while we are facing some oncoming challenges here in our own community we also have many positive things happening. Positive things are happening because people are working hard to make them happen to overcome those challenges. Whether it’s the Port Authority, the Chamber of Commerce, Our Town Coshocton, civic clubs, churches, schools or many others, people are getting involved and making a contribution of their time, talent and treasure to help move our community forward.

The challenge right now, I think, is to somehow stay focused on our local community versus the national scene – which if you flip through the news channels, major print newspapers or any of the various outlets on social media, you are apt to think that our nation is collapsing into chaos. Election results are now being challenged and recounted in at least two states – and not surprisingly, one of them is again Florida.

It’s kind of like flipping a switch and watching the Grinch steal all of our Christmas joy, including the crumbs too small for a mouse. And if you fill your head with too much of all that noise, noise, noise, then you’re probably not going to be a very joyful person. Suggestion – don’t watch. Tune it out. You do have your own opinions anyway, right? I know you do.

The Buckeyes may slide up a notch or two in the football playoff picture. Or they may not. It is looking like – at least as of now – that the four team playoff may escape the Buckeyes this season. A surprising stat that popped up during the telecast on Saturday was that of the 2019 class only three players were recruited from Ohio. What? The state of Ohio is chock full of football talent. Let’s hope that going forward this is a trend that we will see flip back towards Ohio. I think loyalty is a two way street. And if someone has different information on this, please share it with me. The announcers could be wrong.

Well, the Browns made it a successful Sunday with a win over the Falcons. They could be on the right road with solid performances by Mayfield and Chubb. The Falcons are not exactly flying high this year so we will see how solid the future looks. I don’t think we’re looking at the playoffs but next season could be a much more solid and positive picture.

Of course, we know that not everyone is a Browns fan – we have Steelers, Bengals and others spread throughout the community. We even have some fans of TTUN floating around. This year they do have something to be excited about.

Let’s give a shout out to the Ridgewood Generals football team for a terrific season! Besides the players and coaches it takes a lot of folks behind the scenes to have a successful program and everyone involved is deserving of the accolades for a season well done.

Category: Mark's Musings, Opinion