Old Postcard Wednesday--Reno, "The Biggest Little City in the World"

 

As long-time readers of Writerquake know, Reno is my hometown -- where I spent the first 25 years of my life. When I found this old postcard for sale online I bought it because I so remember the downtown looking exactly like that, and I thought it was ironic that the postcard was mailed to someone in Portland, Oregon, 40 miles from where I now live (and I did live in Portland for one year).

Crime in downtown Reno was not much of an issue when I was growing up there but, as nearly everywhere, it has become a concern. This article was posted on November 16, 2011, by KRNV in Reno:

Reno, Nev. (MyNews4.com & KRNV) - Over the past year, Officers from the Downtown Enforcement Team have completed training to be drug recognition experts, also known as D.R.E.'s. The Downtown Enforcement Team has used this skill set to combat crime and develop information about crime trends occurring in the downtown corridor. This year, the Downtown Enforcement Team has conducted 49 drug recognition exams.

These exams have led to multiple criminal arrests from contacts and information obtained during the drug recognition exams. To date, there have been 32 arrests for felony unlawful use of a controlled substance, 15 felony possessions of controlled substance arrests, 2 felony possessions of stolen motor vehicle arrests, 4 arrests for trafficking or sales of a controlled substance and 16 other felony arrests.

The misdemeanor arrests stemming from the exams have led to, 13 arrests for possession of drug paraphernalia, 5 arrests for DUI drugs, and 23 arrests of other misdemeanor crimes.

The Reno Police Department is dedicated to creating a safe environment for residents and visitors to our city.

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I was thinking recently about the Paiute people of Nevada, and of some who were classmates of mine in Reno. They stayed apart from the other students (with the exception of the few who played high school football) and I regret not ever having formed a friendship with any of them.  In doing some reading I discovered a Paiute poet, Adrian C. Louis, who is originally from Lovelock, a small Nevada town. His poem Getting a Second Opinion really moved me. I'm following the poem with his bio and a Bruce Springsteen song that always makes me cry inside, hoping we all might care a bit more about, do a bit more for, our home downtown areas.


Getting a Second Opinion -by Adrian C. Louis

I've just bought you a new winter coat
and we're temporarily sane,
cruising two blocks down the street
from K-Mart in Rapid City.
Three young Indian boys,
fourteen, maybe fifteen years
old and living the thug life
are strolling across the busy street
making cars stop and I slam on
the brakes and give them the finger
and they flash gang signs and one pulls
a small, silver gun and I stomp on the gas
and in the rearview mirror I see them
laughing and I know positively
by the fear in your eyes that
not only is the white man's God
dead, but the Great Spirit is too.


From Wikipedia:

Adrian C. Louis (1947?-) is a Lovelock Paiute author from Nevada now living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He has taught at Oglala Lakota College. His novel Skins (1995) discusses reservation life and issues such as poverty, alcoholism, and social problems and was the basis for the 2002 film, Skins. He has also published books of poetry and a collection of short stories, Wild Indians and Other Creatures (1996). His work is noted for its realism.

Biography
Born in northern Nevada in 1946, Louis is the eldest of twelve children. Of mixed heritage, Louis is of Lovelock Paiute descent. He moved from Nevada to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation.

Louis graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor's and MA in Creative Writing. Louis was also a former journalist and along with being editor of four tribal newspapers, he was the managing editor of Indian Country Today and a co-founder of the Native American Journalists Association.

Louis has ten published books of poetry and two novels. His poetry and fiction have garnered him much recognition and awards. His work has been praised by some of the other notable modern Native American writers, including Sherman Alexie, N. Scott Momaday, James Welch and Leslie Marmon Silko. In 1999, he was added to the Nevada Writer's Hall of Fame. In 2001 he was awarded the Writer of the Year by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers and the Cohen Award for best published poem in Ploughshares. He is also the recipient of the Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the South Dakota Arts Council, the Nebraska Arts Council, the National Endowment of the Arts and the Lila Wallace–Reader's Digest Foundation.

Louis taught English at Pine Ridge's Oglala Lakota College from 1984–1997; since 1999, he has taught in the Minnesota State University systems.

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