By JEANNI RITCHIE

As Angel Studio’s Cabrini wraps up its third weekend still in the top 5 nationwide, Central Louisiana’s Grand Theatre has seen an influx of moviegoers largely due to this film alone.

 

After all, two of Francesca Cabrini’s namesakes are community mainstays.

 

St. Frances Cabrini school was a large part of my childhood. My mother was a kindergarten teacher at the school for over a decade and I would help in her classroom after school every day when my own lessons had ended.

 

It was in fifth grade that my teacher told me to never stop writing, an encouraging directive I’ve followed to varying degrees for over forty years.

 

The school still stands today, its halls echoing sentimental flashbacks as I went recently to pick up a friend’s son. I hadn’t been there since my own post-Katrina teaching year in 2006. Hurricane aftermath had wiped out arts in education funding and my elementary alma mater welcomed me back with open arms.

 

St. Frances Cabrini school and church has educated as well as employed many of the citizens of Central Louisiana, including a popular local parish priest who was once an adorable five-year old in my own mother’s class.

 

Christus St. Frances Cabrini hospital is another piece of Francesca Cabrini’s legacy in Cenla. It’s also part of my own history. I’ve given birth to five children within the walls of the hospital, elevating my ob-gyn to the same level of sainthood in my mind.

 

We all have memories.

 

I fight to preserve the history of those memories with the same tenacity in which my fourth child battled for her life. She fought until her last breath; I will do the same now for all of our children.

 

Cabrini needed a journalist to tell the story of the plight of the unheard youth in New York; I will be the journalist in Alexandria.

 

“Even Rats Have It Better” was the headline penned by New York Times journalist Theodore Calloway, echoing a sentiment spoken by Cabrini regarding the children of Five Points after a young, unclaimed girl died in an underground sewage system. The scene was based on a real-life interview Cabrini gave The Sun in 1889.

 

The same can be said about dogs and governmental agencies in Louisiana. There are at least five animal shelters in Rapides Parish, a Louisiana Animal Control Task Force, dozens of Facebook groups devoted solely to dogs in our area, and a Louisiana statute that gives up to ten years of jail time to those found guilty of aggravated cruelty to animals.

 

Yet we have only one building for disadvantaged youth being operated by the City of Alexandria. Its posted location on the COA website is inaccurate; multiple requests for updated information have not been provided as of press time.

 

The Boys and Girls Club in Central Louisiana disbanded; The YMCA shut its doors as well. This left me with little doubt as to why Alexandria has risen to a crime rate higher than 99.4% of all U.S. cities.

 

Erroneously assuming I was a lone voice crying in the wilderness, I began advocating for change. After being stonewalled by a city government unwilling to collaborate, I temporarily shelved my article and attended a Community Fair at Alexandria Senior High for what I thought would be a fluff piece.

 

What I found was a chorus of voices collectively advocating for positive change in our community. I am not alone at all.

 

The problem isn’t in a lack of services; it’s in a lack of communication.

 

I faced my own mental health Mount Everest last year when I moved back to Alexandria with no means and I futilely tried to find a mental health provider. The suicidal ideations were so strong that I didn’t know if I would even survive before I received a callback from over a dozen different mental health agencies provided from a list on the Louisiana Department of Health website. Fortunately I persevered as no such return call ever came. I simply stopped trying and hoped for the best.

 

There were more than two dozen agencies represented at the Community Fair that could’ve helped me had I just known about them. From Eckerd Connects to Central Louisiana Human Services District, these agencies provide timely services to the citizens of our community, regardless of income.

 

There were many other public, as well as private, nonprofits dedicated to ensuring positive mental health, along with career readiness, addiction counseling, and much more. The opportunities for proper medical care and lifelong success in Central Louisiana are freely available to all regardless of race, income, or ability.

 

These agencies weren’t just handing out flyers. They were handing out hope.

 

We need to go back to a time when we talked openly about issues instead of whispering behind closed doors. We need to remember our nation’s founding premise that we are all created equal. We must help our fellow citizens break stigmas both in society and in the prisons of their minds.

 

We have to do our part in spreading the message because journalism is becoming an extinct art. The daily newspaper I grew up reading is now a thinner, thrice-weekly silhouette of its former self, primarily featuring pumped-in stories from other communities. We’re losing our voice and suffering massive communication breakdowns because of it.

 

The journalists who remained after corporate acquisition must triage stories; mental health and positive community coverage often falls to the bottom of the list.

 

Yet according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) over 20% of American adults experience some sort of mental illness every year. That’s 50 million people. The number goes up to 32% when you factor in addiction. Frighteningly, 5% of adults encounter a more serious mental health concern every year.

 

These statistics don’t even include those who suffer in silence.

 

It’s not just adults either. One in six kids ages 6-17 in the U.S. experience a mental health disorder. I spend hours with that demographic each week; I’d counter the actual rate is much higher.

 

Suicide remains the second-leading cause of death among all U.S. children ages 10-14. Studies show someone dies from suicide in America every 11 minutes.

 

The programs available in Central Louisiana aim to change that. Even organizations like the T.R.E.E. House Children’s Museum seek to make a difference, providing a free place for foster families, biological families, and social workers to meet in a safe, nurturing environment throughout the reunification process.

 

We must work together for the common good and support those who work tirelessly in the shadows to make a difference. They are quietly picking up the slack where big business and politics have failed us.

 

A hierarchy of systems have been put in place in our agencies and businesses where speaking up leads to underhanded retaliation. Customer care often takes a backseat to corporate greed. Public forums are pretenses, final voting having taken place in backrooms long before open sessions ever commence.

 

There is no accountability in Louisiana government either; changing political parties pre-candidacy announcements and redrawing district lines pre-election to ensure votes are commonly accepted practices. In the private sector, senior level executives and managers are quietly relocated after wrongdoing, their actions never facing consequences and allowed to happen elsewhere.

 

 

In Cabrini, the reporter asked citizens of New York a question. “Do you want to live in a city where the voiceless are quarantined and in slums? Or the New York where Cabrini wants us to live?”

 

I ask you today, What Alexandria do you want to live in?

We think nothing of supporting overseas missions or political causes we believe in. We repost tragedies on our social media feeds to bring awareness to others. We pray for the organizations helping marginalized demographics and praise their humanitarianism efforts.

 

Yet we have organizations in Central Louisiana desperately seeking support and exposure while serving our own community and their efforts are largely ignored.

 

I will be featuring every one of these organizations and their offerings in a new series called Community Cares in the Rapides Parish Journal over the next few months. I urge you to subscribe, like, and share the stories.

 

The RPJ is committed to telling stories about our community written by members of our community. They were kind enough to open the door to this educator-turned-journalist with a big mouth and a temperamental streak. I will pay it forward.

 

Something has to change in Central Louisiana even if it takes our own revolution.

 

In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense, a scathing but scriptural polemic against the injustice of rule by a king. His eloquent argument that Americans had a unique opportunity to change the course of history is one we can follow today right here in Central Louisiana.

 

We have it in our power to begin the world over again– Thomas Paine, Common Sense

I am a patriot as well. I will continue to speak for those who have no voice.