Mark Knows It All

By Mark Mangie 2019 has been a hectic and disturbing year.   While our nation is enjoying unprecedented prosperity, the political climate has gone south in a major way.   These are difficult times as politics cause irreparable harm to close family ties and longtime friendships.   Even churches struggle to bridge the unbridgeable. It seems hopeless Maybe…maybe not. Brush away the surface, sometimes the body politic, despite itself, is way ahead of the political “leaders” who pretend to lead. Ask any diversity director in the area.   They will tell you that Youngstown, Ohio, is historically one of the most racially and ethnically divided areas in the entire United States.   You can circle the ethnic and racial enclaves on the map.   Slavs/Poles on Westside and Lansingville.   Jews on the far Northside and Liberty Township. Blacks in the inner city.   Hispanics on the East Side.   Italians in Struthers, Campbell, Lowellville, and parts of Boardman.   White Anglo-Saxon Prot