I was watching the evening news, and fast forwarding through commercials for Abilify, Paxil, Zoloft and others, when I remarked to my wife “..is Louisville that depressed?”. Well, for once, TV marketers seemed to know something I didn’t know. Louisville is SAD!
According to a new survey from Men’s Health magazine, Louisville is in the TOP 5 of America’s Saddest Cities. TOP 5? (see entire list here)
Now, I am admittedly a glass half-full kind of guy. I tend to look on the positive side of everything. So, not even in my darkest, lowest moments could I have imagined Louisville would be so depressed about things.
I mean, We have The Derby. We make the world's great baseball bats, Louisville Sluggers. We’re home to an INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT for god’s sake. I mean we’re a happening town. We have things going on here. Right?
Men’s Health says not so much. The writers calculated suicide rates (CDC) and unemployment rates (Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of June 2011), tapped SimplyMap for the percentage of households that use antidepressants, as well as the number of people who report feeling the blues all or most of the time. Quicker than you can yell “PROZAC”, Men’s Health figured out Louisville is one sad place. We finished fifth behind, St. Petersburg, FL, Detroit, Memphis and Tampa.
So as I sat at the window looking out at the gray sky and the rain, I could feel the doubt start to cover me like a snuggie. Things are tough I know that, but I needed that glass to be half-full again. So I shrugged off the snuggie of doubt. I called a friend of mine at Leadership Louisville, Holly Prather.
She was shocked to hear the news as well and then quickly responded:
“It’s just not possible that Louisville is one of America’s saddest cities! How can you be sad in one of the best cities to eat, drink and be merry? We have multiple weeks of parties for the fastest 2 minutes in sports and there are new restaurants with fabulous food opening daily. And, from what I observe at Leadership Louisville, whatever the issue, there are some of the most passionate people stepping up to make positive change. Louisville a sad city, I think not!”
Yeah, I think not! And I also think, I’m going to quit watching the evening news!
Photos by courierpress and compass99
