Ode to Park City
Sunday, July 27, I was deeply moved by "Happiness of Limburg." The raw reality of our mining history is presented in an extraordinarily impressive way. And while the emotions are still coursing through my body, the realization sinks in that this region deserves to be built on. For community, for trust, for perspective.
As the granddaughter of two miners, I saw my own family history in snippets of the piece. The hard labor underground, the guiding hand of church and mine, the changes that followed after the mines closed, and the realization that you have to reinvent yourself as a region. That task has never stopped. And it requires something different today than in the past: no longer surviving, but daring to grow again.
Parkstad is at a tipping point in this. For too long the story about this region has been told in terms of "backwardness," while the figures also say something else. Employment in Kerkrade is growing stronger than average, business parks are flourishing, and the population is cautiously rising. Of course, the challenges are there: poverty, health, livability. But they should not dominate the story. What dominates is potential.
Those who live or work here sense that something is going on. A quiet change. Young people who no longer automatically leave. Businesses choosing this region. People speaking out about how they want to live, live, learn. Park City is evolving - not shockingly, but steadily. It requires all of us to let go of the old image and make room for a new narrative. Not because everything is perfect, but because there is perspective.
That starts with trust. In each other. In the people with whom you share the street, run the club, cross the schoolyard. Community arises not in policy, but in behavior. In that one neighbor who brings groceries. That volunteer who stands by every weekend. The youth worker who keeps listening. Municipality, government and institutions can support, but never replace what people themselves give to each other. As became crystal clear on stage: the bond between the cowpeas and within the community kept people going through all the challenges.
This is why I believe in the small-scale as the foundation for the larger. And in cooperation as the key. Governments, businesses, social organizations: if we truly act together - not side by side, but with each other - then policy becomes meaningful. Then we build a region that not only survives, but thrives.
Parkstad deserves to be approached with ambition. Not to be the footnote of Limburg, but a chapter in itself. For this it is necessary that also in The Hague is looked at with different eyes. Not from pity, but from partnership. Not as an area where something is wrong, but as a region where something beautiful is growing.
Last Sunday, I walked out of the Rodahal with a lump in my throat. Not only because of the deserved closing applause, but also because of what I felt outside: the realization that we, here in Park City, have something special. Not an obvious happiness. But a region reshaping its meaning, through people who choose to stay, work, care and build.
That is not the past. That's the present. And our future.
That, to me, is the true happiness of Park City.
Petra Dassen-Housen
Mayor of Kerkrade
See the full article titled "Mayor Dassen after premiere The Luck of Limburg: 'Parkstad is not the footnote of Limburg, but a chapter in itself'" and the atmospheric images at www.limburger.nl.
