Mark Knows It All

                                                Only those of us who stayed in the Mahoning Valley after the close of the steel mills understand what it was like to see the fabric of our local society torn apart.  Back in those days we did not have the degree of government safety net that has been built up over the past twenty years.  This community not only lost the mill jobs, but the community leaders who left with them.  Locally owned corporate headquarters either disappeared through bankruptcy or just packed up their bags and left.  No community can lose upwards of 60,000 jobs and survive. Youngstown was the capital of the Rust Belt, a center for disdain, the punch line of jokes as we watched all that we grew up with disappear in front of our eyes.  As long as I can remember, this area was a center of corruption and mob violence.   It went on year after year after year after year.  We earned our reputation as Bombtown, USA.  Could somebody explain to me that even as a