To the Editor:
As workers sifted through the rubble of one of Danville’s few remaining historic buildings, they plucked from the wreckage a time capsule sealed within the 1945 cornerstone, laid some 80 years ago.
In a video, proudly posted to the District’s Facebook page, school administrators pulled out newspapers place there by citizens who had endured the burning of their elementary school in the midst of World War II — who had sacrificed, rebuilt, and then stood on the edge of victory.
No doubt they hoped their words would be read in a future wiser than their past. How disappointed they would be had they known that their legacy, etched in stone, should be torn down and rewritten in asphalt — hot, cracked, and replaceable — by the current Superintendent.
Now, a man whom God chose not to bless with vision cannot be blamed for his shortsightedness, so we should not forget the three Board members (a bare majority) who likewise remained deaf to common sense.
Perhaps they were too busy marveling at the grand idea of a parking lot to notice the chorus of voices pleading for reason — now strengthened by new voices asking, “What in the hell have they done?”
Whatever the case, their legacy, like the Superintendent’s, is now measured in not in what was built, but rather by what is lost forever.
Through several public demonstrations, the good people of Danville asked for a heritage center, or a jobs incubator. They asked for a library. They asked, at the very least, that the treasured World War II-era Middle School building not be torn down for the sake of a few extra feet of blacktop.
And in return, they were met with a curious blend of indifference, misdirection, and that peculiar brand of official nonsense that only the most accomplished bureaucrats can muster.
In the swampiest of his misdirection, the Superintendent frequently stressed that a parking lot is a small price to pay for added student safety.
I cannot help but wonder how safety is improved when a community’s history is erased, its potential squandered, and its people ignored.
But then, I lack the visionary mind that sees a historic town square and imagines a few more painted lines as progress.
But let us not despair. No, let us instead commemorate this moment. That is why I have submitted a resolution to the School Board and Village Council to formally christen this fine expanse of nothingness as the “Jason Snively Memorial Parking Lot.”
Let it stand as a tribute to the tireless work of one man to take what was something, and turn it into nothing.
Let future generations gaze upon this field of emptiness and ask, “Who squandered our town’s inheritance?” And let the answer always be clear.
Our forebearers deserved to be remembered for their achievements. And if Superintendent Snively’s greatest contribution to Danville is a vacant stretch of pavement where a historic building once stood, then I say, let his name endure.
After all, history should never forget its mistakes.
Wil Durbin
Danville High School Class of 2006
