Damascus, Ohio, not Syria, it's a little boring here but peaceful/draft 1 in progress

Damascus, Ohio, not Syria, it's a little boring here but peaceful/ draft 1 in progress

fiction
edward w pritchard

Damascus, Ohio, not Syria, it's a little boring here today but peaceful. I drove down yesterday to take a look, at Damascus Ohio, since I couldn't go to Syria; I have been worried about the war, the situation and people in Damascus, Syria. Syria is in a civil war, sectarian violence, Shiite against Sunni and as usual America and our allies are again failing in our efforts to help by coercion to bring democracy to a Muslim country.


First off, there are two Damascus' in Ohio, two at least that I know of, one West of me about two hours and a half, near Toledo, Ohio; that's the driving distance from Damascus Syria to Tel Aviv in Israel. The second Damascus, in Ohio the one I drove to yesterday is East of Akron, where I live, about a good hour's drive; that's about the driving distance from Damascus Syria, to Beirut, Lebanon. Likely, both Damascus' in Ohio are named after the famous city in Syria, but at least in Damascus East in Ohio, where I drove to is a lot more sedate and calm than it is in Damascus Syria, the Mother City.  I hear a lot about Syria lately in the news and it worries me. I keep fearing that Israel will be drawn into the fighting in Damascus, fifteen minutes away from Tel Aviv by latest generation fighter jet; or the violence in Syria will spread to Beruit Lebanon, still destabilized from their recent problems, and one hour's drive away from Damascus, Syria in an old truck carrying ten teenage rebel fighters.

Damascus, in Mahoning County Ohio, out towards Youngstown,  is really small, not even actually a town; we call them townships here. I didn't see any good restaurants, not on the main road I drove on; at least not the kind of restaurant one of the food travel channel guys would want to go to. The big food news around Damascus, Ohio is that McDonald's is bringing out the spicy Mcbites soon. I didn't see a McDonald's in Damascus, but, I passed through town a little fast. You have to drive North fifteen minutes to the 57 Diner in Alliance for good food, or twenty minutes South to the Trolley Car Diner in Lisbon, Ohio not Portugal. Both places have great food and lots of the people from Damascus are there at lunch time.

No signs of violence today in Damascus, Ohio. Several gun shops selling weapons, and one place called "Saw and knife sales" looked a little ominous,  but a very peaceful town really. The correctional institute down in Lisbon was sedate, no guards, no inmates about. The only evidence of the military I saw driving through South Eastern Ohio on Friday, August 17, 2012 was a VFW up in Alliance, with only three cars in the parking lot at 2PM. However, the people in Damascus Ohio can be aggressive, if being too aggressive in their storytelling is a hostile activity. Older people everywhere in Ohio can talk a little too loud and too long on subjects they are passionate about.

Some sectarian religious differences were evident in my drive through Damascus, Ohio. The Jehovah's Witnesses have at least three Churches down that way and they are aggressive in their advertising as you drive along the roadways. They, or someone painted up a very large rock, twenty feet high, on route 45 South; and on the large rock they painted Jesus saves on the side facing the road and one hundred feet North some one else rented a billboard to say "God is Judgment", or something close to that. I was driving around a curve when I saw the message but I think "God will Judge You" was the sentiment. Several of the other churches down that way by billboard invited me to services this Sunday, but they asked in a friendly way; no sectarian violence was threatened, demonstrated or evidenced.

No souks were found in Damascus Ohio, but a couple of very small farmers markets were noted, one in Lisbon just selling corn and tomatoes and several along the road North on route 45. No hunger among the denizens of Damascus, Ohio was observed, nor were any refugees espied desperately headed away from town on foot. A lot of us folks here in Ohio are too fat anyway and it's a good thing we don't have to pathetically walk carrying our most important belongings to Turkey, or Lebanon, or maybe even Iran, like the people do right now in Damascus, Syria.

I heard a retired policeman at the 57 Diner having lunch say that it wasn't as safe as people think to live out in the country down this way, country meaning out of the cities and towns, rural America. He blames the recent rash of robberies on unemployed teenagers, it's hard for them to find work. He was suspect in his motivation a little, for he is now selling security alarms he said, I eavesdropped what he said at lunch; but he was an honest man and seemed to know a lot about small town life. The only teenager I saw down toward Damascus, Ohio was taking his Grand Mother to lunch, his treat, he works part time when he is not playing in the eight grade school band. The teenager left the waitress a respectful tip, out of his own money; I noticed and I told him so, and he called me Sir. No teenagers in Damascus, Ohio or nearby seemed to be rebels or looking to radically change the status quo in their Country, at least that I noticed on my drive down through Damascus Ohio, on 08/17/2012.

The land down around Damascus, Ohio originally belonged to the Hopewell Indians. They were the mound builders and are an ancient people but nothing like the ancientness of Damascus, Syria, one of the oldest continually habituated cities on Earth. After the Hopewell moved on, historians aren't sure why, the newer Indians that moved into the area that later became Damascus, Ohio; the Erie, the Iroquois, and the Algonquins considered the area a cross roads, neutral territory. The tribes back then, before the Europeans came, although they had many differences, apparently allowed each other to pass through the area or stay temporarily without inciting violent warlike behaviors towards each other.

Now don't get me started on all the bad things the Europeans, Americans and other immigrants did to the original native Americans. You know how us old people in Ohio can tell long drawn out stories. But those original native American tribes might be on to something. If an area like Damascus, Ohio or Damascus, Syria is an ancient cross roads and maybe an important trading center, they call trading centers souks in Damascus Syria I think; then there will be a lot of diversity among the peoples there, diversity in religious beliefs, preferences in food, and political opinions.

Maybe the people of the ancient Mother city of Damascus Syria can learn something from some the original inhabitants of the area later to become the very modest and humble town of Damascus, Ohio. Damascus, Ohio once paid a great tribute to Damascus Syria, when it was first founded by choosing to name itself after the famous City in Syria.

Now of course, Damascus, Ohio is in America, and is part of an imperialistic Country, that by force and subterfuge tries to make the whole world think and act like us. Mc- America, democracy, big business and sometimes shamefully water boarding for our enemies. We have our problems here in America .  But, if we here are all Americans, even the native Americans who were once in the way of progress, then let's have the later native America tribes who lived near the area that is now the very small insignificant town of Damascus Ohio give the people in and around Damascus Syria some advice.

 Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and others, declare Syria neutral territory because it is a cross roads. Arab and Muslim powers, stop the violence in Damascus Syria.
 Lebanon don't allow your citizens, who follow tribal ways or are experts at promoting chaos incite and practice violence in Syria. Israel, don't panic, don't bomb Syria; Israel don't get involved in a no fly zone in Syria.

This from an old storyteller from Ohio. America, and your allies, quit meddling in Syria. America instead of fighting in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and very soon in Syria, mind your own store and find the teenagers in America jobs before they start listening to the ideologies of chaos.

Meanwhile, take a nice drive down through Damascus, Ohio and see the peaceful countryside. If you stop in Damascus, Ohio say hello to the locals, but be careful old people from Ohio can talk a lot and use a lot of exclamation points in their writing once they get started on a story or giving their opinion on anything, such as the sad situation in Damascus, Syria!  
end


to be edited, continued and rewritten