Let’s just say this is something I had to do. On Monday, Nathan Young and Jeffrey Leachman wore signs and walked in downtown Anniston. The backs of the signs said “looking for work.” On the front, one sign said “Masters Degree in I.T. Can’t Find Work! Borrowing Money to Survive!” The other sign said “I Voted for Obama, and Have A Disability. I Want to Earn A Living!”
I felt like this is something I had to do to get the attention of area leaders. Jobs in East Alabama are being lost left and right and I just can not find anything. I wrote a post detailing why East Alabama is in deep trouble. Click on the link to read that post! http://geekalabama.com/2013/01/27/sunday-discussion-why-east-alabama-is-in-deep-trouble/
Enjoy the video and photos!
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Categories: Personal Life Stuff
Just discovered your blog. I am from Broomtown, AL, between Gaylesville and Ft. Payne, originally. I live in Atlanta now, and have for about 15 yrs, since leaving the Navy.
I admit i am conflicted. I want to be back home, but I am here. But what keeps me away is that the way of life I grew up with is nearly impossible, and I don’t think finding a way to attract new corporate masters is any way forward. I’d come home, if we could disengage further, but not to just take a position with whoever replaces Fruit of the Loom.
East Alabama used to be mostly self-sufficient, before we turned into lint heads. Your friend might not find a job in Atlanta or Charlotte or Santa Monica either, but he’d have a lot better chances. But I know how to plant 10 acres by mule. I know how to can and smoke and pickle a full cupboard for the year.
Maybe that;s the direction we should be going. But it won’t ever happen if we can’t get the land back intot he hands of a lot of people, instead of a few. The farms in Broomtown where I grew up are being turned under to make vacation homes for doctors and lawyers from Ohio and Miami and NY, who like to ‘play country’.
What’s the solution? I really don’t know. But I suspect I need to find a way to be part of it, if I want to be happy.
for what it’s worth…
Great blog, by the way. I plan to keep reading.
I am guessing you read the post about why East Alabama is in deep trouble. I think people have to pressure the public officials to change. The citizens have to talk to the city councilmen, county commissioners, and the legislators about what they are doing to bring jobs to the area. If they don’t do that, they need to be voted out. And that’s the problem, people likes to keep the current politicians because of their moral values instead of their records.
That is my point. I agree with you completely, right up until you say jobs. More jobs, in a blobal economy that is racing to the LCD, is a recipe for disaster. Finding a sustainible, self-sufficient future is imperative, and plugging even deeper into a rotten economy is neither sustainable, nor self-sufficient.
And whike politicians have their role to play, it isnt a huge one.
I think what your saying is we need to live a more sustainable life. And I agree with you! Many people in Alabama thinks climate change is a bunch of c**p. I wish I could live in a place where you don’t need to drive a car to get to a place. Where everyone takes care of the poor and elderly. Where everyone recycles and cares for the environment. And, I wished we lived in a world where money was not a factor. I guess I am dreaming of living in a Star Trek world.
Or a medieval estate. I personally have grave doubts regarding the current claims about climate change for example, but I desire such a world simply because it is better, more human.
But multiple generations have accepted the ‘jobs’ paradigm. It has ruined a number of peoples, not just us. What I am proposing is a return to the land.
Incidentally, I think it is only people with the right morals who ever do manage to care for the widow and orphan, that is to say the poor and elderly. I ackniwledge those arent the morals of rightwing protestantism though.
It would be easier to return to the land but I am afraid it will never happen! In today’s society, if you are unemployed and receiving food stamps like me many people in Alabama views you as lazy. That is not true and I wished it would stop!