This time of year in North Carolina’s foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the weather just cannot seem to make up its mind. Not cold enough to be refreshing, not warm enough to be a relief. Not quite winter, but not quite spring. Just somewhere in between, in limbo. Waiting. This […]
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Film critics have had nary a good word to say about Netflix’s new movie “Hillbilly Elegy.” Reviewers varyingly called it “Oscar-Season B.S.,” “woefully misguided,” “Yokel Hokum,” “laughably bad” and simply “awful.” I admit to delight when I read professional critics trashing the film, which is based on J.D. Vance’s widely […]
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COVID-19 closures and supply chain failures have sharpened concerns about food security and more. Rural areas were not spared from the worries. For those of us who grew up in rural families where gardening, canning and a freezer full of meat are just normal preparations for winter, 2020 has been […]
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Last Wednesday in Portsmouth, Ohio, a team of organizers with River Valley Organizing Project was out canvassing and encountered a man outside a corner store who was overdosing. The organizers were having folks fill out a survey—asking them what they love about their community, what they’d like to see changed, […]
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High school and college students are becoming more politically active than our country has seen in generations. It’s people under the age of 18 who have led marches on Washington to end gun violence in schools and called on our leaders to take real action toward slowing climate change and […]
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“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.” ― Fred Rogers The sun […]
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