Ben Edwards' Journal:

July 17th:

I was chatting online with cousin Chelsea today, and somehow we got into a huge discussion of why we loved the cities that we lived in. Okay, it was a bit less of a discussion and more of an interrogation on Chelsea's part, asking me how I could possibly actually like living in Gotham. She's only been here to visit, and, living in San Francisco, she doesn't have the benefit of living in Metropolis or Keystone City to give her just a bit of perspective on what it's like to even live CLOSE to Gotham City. All that Chelsea really knows about are the stories they tell about Gotham. About all the bad stuff that's happened to this city, about all the horrible things that go on in Gotham, how it's the murder capitol of the country, as well as the property crimes, robbery, assault, kidnapping, arson, and auto theft capitol of the country. Anyway, our discussion culminated with her just coming out and asking, "What is there about Gotham City that IS good?"

It's taken me a few minutes to really think about exactly why I do love Gotham so much, before I could give Chelsea an answer. In a lot of ways, Gotham is like no other place in the world. Everybody's got something to say about it, but everyone not from Gotham always loves to talk about the negatives. There's no denying it; Gotham City is a tough freaking town. When New Yorkers tell Gothamites about how rough their city is, we usually burst out laughing. We're the ones that make up all those jokes about what huge pussies people in Metropolis are. There are loads of t-shirts all about it. My favorite is "Gotham City: Our Crack-Whores Can Beat Up Your Crack-Whores" (Even though the Gotham Knights always seem to lose to the New York Giants). We make light of the fact that we live in a messed up city. We have to, in order to deal with all of the bad things that have happened to this place: The Clench plague that killed my English teacher (along with thousands of other Gothamites), then the Cataclysm earthquake that practically leveled the place. After the earthquake, me, my parents, and a bunch of my friends from Brentwood Academy all moved to Blüdhaven during the No Man's Land period, when Gotham was cordoned off from the rest of the world for a year (THAT sucked. Especially with everyone in that nasty place hating all us refugees).

Since then, things have kind of been as normal as they could get around here. But even then, normal in Gotham City is still pretty freaky compared to everywhere else; lets not forget about the whackos. Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, the list goes on (and who hasn't had a nightmare or two about EVERYONE'S favorite psychopathic clown?). Dealing with the parade of psychos is enough to make most people up and leave this place.

Not me. I see past all of that. Gotham is the fast lane; everything happens here faster and in greater quantity than anywhere else. If you can handle Gotham, you can handle anywhere. Yeah, there's a lot of people that let the city drag them down, but there's plenty of people that become the strongest, most determined and compassionate people you will ever know from living in this city. Gotham's dark nature has a way of preparing you for anything and yet still enabling you to have a great amount of heart.

Yeah. I know it's corny.

But that's not my only reason for loving Gotham.

Other than the fact that Gotham has everything, and that it makes wonderful and capable human beings out of those that can adapt to it, there's a man that has proven to all of us, time and time again, that Gotham City is worth saving. I mean, look at Metropolis: The perfectly preppy and positively chic city where everything is shiny and clean. Who wouldn't want to protect that? And think about that one thing that Metropolis has that Gotham doesn't, the one thing that makes them think they're so much better than us: The big, buff guy in the blue pyjamas and a cape with a big red "S" on his chest. They love to brag about Superman, but I don't see the big deal. If he's Mr. Perfect, it's expected for him to fly out of the sky and save some Metropolitan's rich white ass. If he's got all of that power, I'd be pissed if he wasn't saving people. Superman is too good for Gotham City, so who do we have? We've got the one that every one is afraid of. We've got a normal guy that dresses up like a bat. Gotham City is too dark and depressing a place for a super-powered alien to protect us. We've got Batman, who fights all of the whackos and watches over the city and does exactly what Superman has to use all of his powers to do. On top of all that, he does it for a dump like Gotham City. And if this hellhole is worth that much dedication, then it may be a dump, but, Goddammit, it's OUR dump, and it's like no other place in the world. That's why I love Gotham City. Because it's a place worth fighting for.

And because Our Crack-Whores Can Beat Up Your Crack-Whores.