"Made in Triad" -- The erasure of Greensboro

One of the consequences of our blind acquiescence to the myopic view of professional business recruiters that we are better off as some larger homogeneous ill-defined region is that we no longer acknowledge and promote the identities of the real places in which we live -- we have no sense of place. We have no community in which to take pride anymore.

This (Greensboro, NC) News & Record headline is a good example:

"Holiday stamps made in Triad go world over."

Made in Triad? The stamps were manufactured in Guilford County and designed by a resident of Greensboro Greensboro businessman*. Regionalism doesn't belong in everything, especially at the expense of the hometown newspaper acknowledging its hometown.

With this kind of erasure of place, local media obscure why interesting things happen where they happen, stealing recognition and pride from the places where innovation, education and energy drive progress. Greensboro and Guilford County pay the highest price as acknowledgment of our achievements gets diluted by shared attribution with the hinterlands as supposedly accomplished in the no-place "Triad." And we get it from both ends. When neighboring communities fail to invest in their schools, or to exercise, or to brush their teeth, Greensboro get lumped into headlines about "Dumb kids/Fat people/Lots of cavities... in Triad."

Pick a successful major metropolitan area in the US. Pick any one. Its name will be anchored by a real place. Even if it has some nifty additional descriptor, all grown-up places elevate and acknowledge the lead city or cities. Things that happen in Chicago happen in Chicago--not Ilinwi; Atlanta, in Atlanta--not The Quintcounty Region; Orlando, in Orlando--not TangerineLand.

Let the business recruiters and the government statisticians continue to identify a region called the Triad. It suits their purposes. Local media would do better, both for promoting us to the world and fostering pride at home by referring to the real named places where we live. Congratulations to the Guilford County factory that made the stamps designed by the man from Greensboro. It's a great story for them and for Greater Greensboro.

* A commenter notes that the designer operates a business in Greensboro, but lives in King.