Throughout the years I’ve been communicating with my fellow Whitehallians, while there has been occasional criticism because people found my writings ‘too hard’, I’ve always strived hardest to give you the most factual, in-depth reporting on goings on at City Hall that I could, above all else. It is what I owe you in reporting on that which is going on in our collective government. Several times, people with whom I seek counsel, advised me to ‘know my audience’ and to ‘dumb-down’ my writings to make them easier for more people to read. Here is why I never listened to them, to my communication’s detriment or not:

I am merely a son of Whitehall, born and raised here. Son of a bartender Father who didn’t graduate high school and a salesperson Mother with some college but no degree. Myself educated at East Broad elementary, Robinwood elementary, Rosemore Junior High and WYHS. While I did take courses and classes related to my acting in NYC and L.A., as well as read scores of books on varied topics due to my curiosity of life; I really have no more than a high school diploma. I was raised here in Whitehall with the varied types you would see most anywhere. Who am I then to think I can be better than I’ve ever been? I’m just a schmoe from a 5 square mile suburb of Columbus Ohio, right? Well, what a ridiculous notion that is and which to ever allow yourself to remain mired in. It really comes down to what everyone is taught, that they have infinite capabilities and capacities as human beings and that, if you apply yourself, rise in education levels, you can have a happy and fulfilling life. As such, I heard them and applied it to my own life, nothing more than any other ‘schmoe’ could’ve done for themselves, that’s all.

So, outside of the typical high school education the majority of us has taken, it is my curiosity and love of books; the written word, that helped me to self-elevate my education. It is no more than that.

Personally, in regard to my use of ‘big words’, as an artist, I see words as the medium and the page as the canvas. As such, words aren’t merely ‘roy g biv’ but rather the infinite hues created by that spectrum. To say that words must only be one and two syllables to be understandable is to do an injustice to the myriad ways to describe people and life and our environs. I do not write and speak like this to put on airs nor to impress anyone but, rather, to paint pictures with the rainbow of colors at my disposal, nothing more.

My Grandmother always kept a dictionary on every floor of her home. She was also a reader and told me that her Mother taught her that whenever you came upon a word you didn’t know, you merely had to look it up in the dictionary and once you grasped its meaning, the word was yours forever. I am merely the end result of decades of that teaching: making words ‘mine forever’. Its called educating oneself. It has always been the ideal we strove for in society: to make ourselves better and elevate our education as people. This is what I was taught and thought the norm. As such, I followed that example: reading/education: good, ignorance/uneducated: bad.

I know and understand Whitehall’s historical roots: working class, and while others may not expect much of certain people, I always felt everyone deserved an equal measure of consideration and respect. I have chatted with and given equal regard and respect, both to a homeless man and a Billionaire. I do so because I must respect and assume their capacities for understanding and knowledge and not treat them differently merely because they come from different stations in life. To do so is disrespectful.

So then, out of respect for others and believing in their education and capacities for understanding, I spoke and wrote as I do given what I’ve absorbed. I also gave others the benefit of the doubt, that they were smart enough to understand what I was communicating, and if they didn’t, like Councilman Wes Kantor said to me once, he’d “look up a word he didn’t understand so he’d know what I was saying”. I must give him credit for that task. It’s really as simple as that. That is why I’ve refused to ‘dumb things down’ for anyone.

Our role in this society we share is to elevate ourselves and others towards enlightenment, not undercut and darken established enlightenment simply to make things more easily grasped for those who refuse to elevate themselves. If that is a failure in communication by me, so be it. There seems to be a greater acceptance of lowering ones standards than ever before, you merely have to read letters from simply-educated young men in the Civil War to understand how this is true. As such, I feel like a standard-bearer in this department. I refuse to be a part of that slide into an Idiocracy. If only one person is able to read and comprehend what I’ve written or, I inspire one person to be better than themselves, then my writings are a success. We rise or sink by what we allow in our lives and while I personally was raised in some unfortunate situations, I’ve never allowed them to keep me down or remain mired in them. For a healthy society, I expect and believe the same of others.