= new reply since forum marked as read
Then the man I voted for in the primaries against John Edwards--DG Martin. I remember when Governor Jim Hunt appeared on the cover of Newsweek reading to a classroom of children-touting the importance of education. Then appointing the leader of the NC Wildlife Federation as head of his his environmental Dept. Was it called DENR back then?
I remember the stories my mother told me of Sunday schools taking up collections to buy the Blue Ridge mountains to stop the loggers from destroying that beautiful area. It was during the depression and they were collecting pennies, nickels, and dimes. FDR heard about it and was so touched he turned over one and a half million dollars to help the cause.
Then there was Charles Kuralt and Andy Griffith, and thousands of lesser-knowns.
We really did use to be so much better than this. 
Awesome outer banks sea, sand & fun times; the mountains; beautiful Asheville, the arts, colleges, tech. Well you know all this and how for 30-40 years we've let the worst elements take over and destroy and corrupt. It's very scary, look at beautiful Florida and what's happened in 15 years of GOP rule there, and the great state of Texas, Michigan, the Great Lakes, progressive Wisconsin with Walker and the same ultraconservative radicals and ALEC operatives. But then there's Minnesota with a good government holding strong.
The decline and hard times in the Midwest cities and regions has continued since the 80s. They were once strong and great, the Heartland of America. Former industrial, prosperous cities like Balto., Buffalo, Camden, NJ, Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit and many others have to transition somehow I suppose too. Strange, uncertain time it is.
And rugged, naturally beautiful and resource rich Appalachia that's been exploited and abandoned for 30 years basically. Blows the mind truly. I'm probably upsetting you more by this misery story. So really all I can think is that we have to push on and fight for change for the better like our ancestors and all people facing adversity of many kinds.
There are signs of hope with Bernie and Hillary and esp. young people who are energetic, positive and involved in their futures. We must try to change the ravenous neoliberal economic system that exploits and commodifies everything, even humans as resources to use for continual profit. This economic system is not sustainable experts say, so there will be change one way or another. Take care & Hugs, North Carolina It will get better. 
P.S. ~ We loved Andy Griffith and Mayberry, esp. my dad who was the son of a sheriff. When mom was a little girl in the 1930s her dad would take the family to drive up along the Blue Ridge Parkway when it was new, a very special treat.
