Losing Our Identity

Recently I started receiving notices from "The Berglund Center" in my inbox. The Roanoke Civic Center, the place where I saw Linda Ronstadt, Styx, the Commodores, Neil Diamond, and a great number of ice skating shows, is now called "The Berglund Center" because the city sold naming rights.

Never again will I make another purchase from Berglund Automotive. I haven't in many years anyway, but I guarantee you I won't ever again.

I understand they're also considering doing similar things with parts of Elmwood Park. Maybe they will sell the right to name the newly remodeled downtown library. Maybe Microsoft will buy that and call it the Microsoft Reader (that's me being snarky), since Microsoft doesn't have an e-reader that I am aware of.

Earlier, Roanoke changed the name of the Roanoke Regional Airport to the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, even though the airport is in Roanoke City. Blacksburg is 40 minutes away, and I really don't care if Virginia Tech calls it home. They can build their own airport.

I don't live in the city, but I live in the Roanoke Valley, and as such, in the environs of Roanoke City. Botetourt County is part of that - in fact, the mother of that. Botetourt County ultimately spawned Roanoke City, formerly called Big Lick.

Botetourt has for years had an image problem - it doesn't know if it's rural or suburban, an industrial designation, a tourism designation, or just a bedroom community of neighboring jurisdictions.

Apparently that image problem extends to the entire valley and encompasses a number of counties, several towns, and the city proper. And now it's been made even more complex by the lack of financial support from the state and poor political choices on the part of local representatives.

As a citizen of the Roanoke Valley, I take pride in Roanoke and its environs. I love the area's history, I enjoy the viewshed, and I find the whole region to be delightful. It offers something for everyone if one wants to take advantage of the many activities available. We have educational facilities, museums, festivals, movie theaters, shopping, and other attractions. The whole valley is just off the Blue Ridge Parkway and while we may be a little on the Appalachian side of things, on the whole we're a happy community. It may not be for everyone, but it's been my family's home for at least seven generations.

I resent the corporate takeover of things that citizens hold dear and take pride in - and paid for with taxpayer dollars and donations. I don't want to attend The Berglund Center. I want to take pride in ROANOKE CITY. I don't want to fly out of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Airport. I want to fly out of the Roanoke Regional Airport.

Soon we will all be sporting advertising on our forehead. It's already on the backs of ball fields, splattered over hats and T-shirts, and forcing name changes of things that make my head spin. I stopped watching NASCAR when the Winston Cup became something else. To me, it will always be the Winston Cup.

So for heavens sake, don't make me go pay my taxes at the Altec Courthouse, or watch kids play ball at the Titan Cement All-America Field. Don't make me check out books from the HomeTrust Bank Library. And I absolutely will not under any circumstances attend the Fralin-Waldron YMCA. I don't care how much money they donated to the project. I don't want to be owned.

We need to keep our image as a unique and congruous community, not drive wedges down the middle with oligarchical and political stupidity.

If I had the money, I'd have paid for those naming rights to the Roanoke Civic Center - and then left the name alone. Good corporate citizens should pony up money to support things the citizenry wants, and they should do it not to advertise and make more money for themselves. They should do it because, guess what? They live here, too, and they should have some civic pride in their community.