By Jeff Wilber
To live in Buffalo, NY is not an easy thing, it’s a strange, yet wonderful, place, but it’s not easy.
There is the weather, of course, but there’s also the poverty and an undercurrent of generational racism that runs through the streets like the Niagara River and a chasm between the haves and have-nots wider than the Gorge.
Yet, yet, when it comes to bringing us together there are two constants: being the perpetual underdog, and the Buffalo Bills.
Having just written that, I guess the two things are one. We are a community, and a team, of underdogs. The butt of jokes nationwide about lost Superbowls and the never-ending snow. Yet, when people come here for whatever reason they do, they find their predispositions smashed by who we really are: we are kind, giving of what little we have, caring, selfless, and, well, as the t-shirt says, ‘The City of No Illusions’.
Adversity builds character, and we are rife with that!
This past year has been one tragedy after another that has shown our mettle, our character, like no other. We came together after the heinous and despicable Tops shooting. We saved each other after Mother Nature tried to kill us, again. And, now, we come together one more time – we come together for yet another calamity.
And, amidst all this tragedy, at the heart of us, all of us, is hope – we are a people who, at times, have nothing but our hope. And that’s what the Buffalo Bills are to this community: The Epicenter of Hope. The rallying point and rallying cry of our WNY people. That football team is OUR common ground; our neutral place, our hope.
And to see one of OUR Bills go down in the manner in which he did, the faces of his comrades when did, and the universal reaction because he did, my God, it rips us all to the core!
Damar Hamlin was our brother, son, and family lying there on the field.
To see those young men, those players we hold in such high regard, weeping for their teammate, their friend, it tears at the very fabric of our souls and our town. It just seems like too much!
So, what do we do? As usual, anything and everything we can. We forge on! We hold each other, as we do. We support each other, as we do. We pray and we cheer and we continue to hope, as we do.
Hope. It’s the one thing I know that is available in infinite amounts and available to anyone – especially in this rusty burgh. We hope for Damar and we hope for our City and we hope for better days. Buffalo, the city of hope. We are #BuffaloStrong
Lead Photo by David Ireland on Unsplash
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