We saw an energy, an honest energy that didn’t come from hoping to see Dolly. We saw volunteers organizing to make the theatre work, people who were volunteering their time to work the Thursday Old Crow Medicine Show concert for nothing other than community pride.

No, these people are not necessarily allies with Elizabeth Branham and they are definitely not pro city.

They are people who fear the theater is going to raise their taxes. The difference is, instead of calling for the building to be torched, they see the importance of making it work, they see the importance of having this building active, unlike when Lafayette Gatling managed it and let the mold and grass grow.

These people don’t sit around in their various coffee klatches with theater voodoo dolls and cast spells for failure. These people are working hard to make the theater work and that’s the difference.

One person told us Monday night if the arm chair cynics and coffee club naysayers would pitch in, they wouldn’t have time to complain and we agree.

These people are doing this for nothing. No, we take that back. They are doing this for something and it’s called civic pride, a term that seems so Cold War but yet it exists and Monday night we saw it.

We saw people who may have never heard Old Crow’s brilliant anti meth song Methamphetamine but they want to be sure people who have heard it will enjoy it and that the theater they love and believe in, the venue they missed working in during the blight of the Gatling days is vibrant.

No, these people are not pro city and they believe the city should step back and let Branham and her crew of volunteers do what they are passionate about — possibly bring the city some revenue and possibly give people a chance to enjoy something we didn’t see when a bus line was being run from the venue. That something is shows.

Just because the first act at the venue is a string band, a string band with an edge, doesn’t mean only banjo music and bluegrass will be performed there. The people behind the venue are too savvy for that and most of the naysayers know this but would never admit it.

For every one person who doesn’t know Thursday’s act, there are dozens, right here, that do and there are plenty who are stepping outside their musical comfort zone to give them a chance.

We could rail on that subject for days and never win the argument because there are people who just want to complain about everything, people who if a million dollars were thrown at their feet would moan that it wasn’t given to them in ones or twenties.

That’s why we liked what we saw Monday night at the Roanoke Rapids Theatre, people who are afraid — afraid their taxes will go up — being brave, people who know the reality the city is in the theater business and are working hard to make it succeed. Coffee klatches across the Roanoke Valley could learn a few things from them. As was said in the Shawshank Redemption, you can get busy living or you can get busy dying. Translation here, you can get busy helping or get busy complaining — Editor.