Welcome to Rockford. Home to over 150,000 people making it the 3rd largest city in Illinois. You know what it’s also 3rd in? Most miserable cities to live in. Seriously, Forbes rated Rockford the 3rd most miserable city in America to live in. It’s also the 9th most dangerous city in all of America (CBSnews.com). Unemployment rate is 11% according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. I am one of 150,251 people to call this place home.

I’ll admit, it is pretty miserable. Going downtown is kind of a no-no because of the crime and the lack of anything to do. For the rest of Rockford, the main attractions are bowling, the movies and going to our one mall. 150,251 people and only one mall… and it’s never crowded. I’ve lived here 15 years and have grown up longing for the day I leave so I can go to a “real town”.

Then things changed. I did the unthinkable and went downtown. Honestly some of my friends are not even allowed to go downtown because of its reputation. But I went. I forget the reason. I think it was to try a chocolate shop I heard about. I was amazed. I felt like I was meeting my childhood city for the first time. Instead of watching my back and hurriedly trying to get out of downtown, I took the time to look up. To look at the buildings. To go into the shops. To eat at the restaurants. To talk to the people. I discovered art, music, entertainment, history, dance that I had no idea existed.  And I fell in love.

When my friends would say, “there’s nothing to do in Rockford”, I would interject and tell them that Rockford isn’t all that bad. I realized the curse that Rockfordians are under. We’re told that we’re the 3rd worst. We’re told we are miserable. That there is nothing to do. That we’re hopeless. And these are presented as facts. Most people I know dream of leaving, and they never know the beautiful city they’re missing that is so much alive.

See, most people believe there’s nothing to do in Rockford, but have YOU ever looked for anything to do in Rockford? Have you ever explored? See the government and news is wrong about so many things, yet we believe the things they say about Rockford without question. Okay so statistics say that Rockford is miserable, but truly, it’s the people that are miserable. In the great words of Rockford Art Deli’s tee shirt: Rockford doesn’t suck, you do! That may sound harsh, but can you really expect Rockford to be any better when the good people in it do nothing to better it? In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter from a Birmingham jail, he expressed his disappointment, not with the white extremists, but with the white moderates. As he put it, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.” In other words, good people who do nothing about a problem are worse than people who are completely opposed to a change.

Rockford needs to change. It can’t keep going the way it has been. But what is a town if not the people it’s made of? We as Rockfordians need to change. We need to step up and out to fix the many problems our town has. Yes, Rockford might not be something to be proud of, but Rockford is you. Are YOU something to be proud of?

See, like Dr. King, we are fighting a battle for freedom. But not freedom from people or from government, but from ourselves. We are our biggest captors. We are our deepest nemesis. We need to realize that it is we and only we that can change the way things are. It is up to us to support businesses, to discover the organizations trying to make a change, to learn about the very town we live in, and to take the steps of courage towards a better Rockford, a better future, and better individuals. Are YOU willing to change for Rockford?

Get involved:
http://transformrockford.org/

Discover new places:
http://www.gorockford.com/
http://www.rockfordchamber.com/Visit-Rockford/
http://winnebagobuylocal.com/
http://www.yellowbook.com/local-business-directory/?where=rockford%2C+il