If you don’t define yourself, someone else will define you…and you may not like the results.
That was the message Memphis Mayor A C Wharton delivered to the Memphis Rotary Club today according to the Commercial Appeal. From the article:
Noting that Chicago has billed itself as the “City that Works,” and New York has sold itself as the “City that Never Sleeps,” Wharton cited the city’s unique attributes — St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Shelby Farms, Graceland, the natural beauty of the Mississippi River.He also told the gathering that Memphis needs to start thinking about building a new convention center, one that can accommodate larger conventions once the nation’s economy starts gearing up again.
“If you don’t have a song, a story, someone else is going to write your song, your story,” he told the group. “It’s up to us to begin telling our story,” he said.
Memphis needs to work on its image externally, but we also need to work on it internally. I don’t think I’ve ever lived anywhere, and I’ve lived a lot of places, where the locals had such a bipolar view of their city. We love it, on the one hand, and will defend it from those externally who would seek to “define” us. On the other hand, we talk more smack about our city, as if it weren’t there to hear it.
If we want Memphis to have a more positive image externally, we have to spend some time, energy, and use the power of our words to help build a positive image internally. A lot of that starts with a belief that things CAN change, if we focus our time, energy and words toward a common goal.
It CAN happen, but no one, politician, activist, advocate, or PR firm can do it alone. We have to do it together.