Dear Shreveport, Quit Being So Negative!

I realize I will probably offend some people. If I do, you can send the hateful emails and messages here and we can have an open discussion instead of you emailing my employer.

With that being said, why do we love to hate? Why is it in our nature to see something that can potentially be great and then choose the negative approach? I wrote an article about how great it would be to have Buc-ee's open a location right here in Shreveport. It's a tourist attraction. I mean who doesn't love their restrooms and snacks? It's always a must stop when coming to and from Dallas. Most importantly the well-paying jobs a store like that would bring. Did you know their starting wage is $14 an hour?

I read through the comments on the article and there were a lot of people who jumped in to cheer on the idea. They even suggested cool places to have the Buc-ee's built. Then there were people who just wanted to throw mud. It made me sad. Is their hate for their own town really that bad?

The comments I read:

"It’ll just get destroyed lol"
"Why put one in where the crime rate is on the rise"
"We can’t have one because Louisiana sucks and no one here cares about anything." "Customer service here is not buc-ees quality!"
"I wouldn’t wish Shreveport on my worse enemy."
"Shreveport would ruin this fast"

I was bummed. I LOVE the SBC. We have a place where there is always something fun to do. We have some of the best food, entertainment, live music, and the coolest venues ever! Why do so many people in our community choose to be so negative? We have some of the most beautiful people in our community, why don't we choose to celebrate each other and our community? Why don't we choose to support local businesses that call the SBC home?

I find that the people who are the most negative and least supportive are the ones who are the first to complain that a business is closing their doors. Well duh, we didn't support them as a community. I am no economics major, but I have watched my family build businesses, and there is success where there is support.

I read a comment that stopped me in my tracks. Winston hall, whoever you are, you get it. thank you for being one of the positive people
Winston Hall:

"Imagine this: someone from Buc-ee's sees this post and thinks to themselves "hey this is a good idea." Then they read all the self-hating comments about Shreveport. Then they think to themselves, "wow if the citizens of Shreveport are so open about how much they dislike their own city, we probably shouldn't invest in a city like that." And then they put the nice Buc-ee's somewhere else. And then people complain that we don't have nice things here. The Negativity Squad in Shreveport is their own worst enemy.
Here's a helpful hint people. If you REALLY want Shreveport to become better, speak positively of your city. Attract new people and investors and possibility - don't scare them away for crying out loud. Constantly bashing the city with snarky online remarks is actually contributing to the negative stereotype. Get it? Every last one of you who reflexively mouths off about how much you hate Shreveport...YOU are part of the problem. #think"

What if we focused on celebrating the business we love? Or the events we love attending? What if we started checking in on Facebook, promoting something cool that our local community was doing? What if, we quit being our own worst enemy?

My friend Hillary reminded me about the importance of making sure that we are positive. She was reminding me about how body positivity is so important when we talk around our kids. Kids start to mimic us and they start to believe what they hear. Our community is a lot like that. We become what we hear we are.

I will start celebrating local business and events by simply posting about them and sharing the good. I hope you join me. Together, we can make a difference in Shreveport. Together, our positivity will be so loud that we drown the negativity out.

With love,

A PROUD Member of the SBC Community