Spending time in the Scioto River Valley reminds me that they are a zone ahead of us. It is greener and things are in bloom here that we are still looking forward to back home. But poverty, drugs, and low life expectations are casting a lasting cloud over the bottomland soils. The decline in the economy and increase in those "getting a check" is eroding the work ethic and removing good role models for the young.
As a small farmer I lust after the tilled fields of black bottom land soil. I am sure it is "mined" using industrial fertilizers and pesticides. I wish I could take a few big truckloads back home and make it healthy again (and grow a ton of veggies).
It was hot and humid here yesterday but it is lettuce weather today; cool and damp. Tonight we are off to the country reality show known as a karaoke bar well off the main highway. While there my friends here (who are not well to do) will point out those who "get a check from SSI" but are out whooping it up on Friday night. They usually look pretty able bodied to me. But I guess it is no worse than corporate welfare.
Rural america seems to increasingly be a sacrifice zone.
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