The Lord helps them that help they-selves

By Ron Fitzwater

No partisan stuff this week gang, just some meandering thoughts about the state of the county and those that live here.

I have been thinking a lot this week about the job situation here in Ashe County and the desperate need for jobs to return to a community that truly needs them.

I just learned a close friend's mother has lost her job with an area financial institution after nearly 20 years of honest and productive employment, because her job was no longer needed. Funny, they used to need it. But when you have to cut-back, needs sometimes suffer.

No matter where I go in the county, be it across the street to get some lunch, standing out in front of the office taking in the morning or standing in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, I either find myself involved in, or overhearing, a conversation about how bad things are getting.

I have heard local business owners talk about how scared they are about keeping their doors open because the local customers are becoming more frugal and the tourists fewer. True that spring and summer will help with both those groups as second homeowners return and people begin to vacation, but the numbers will be down.

The government has just passed a $787 billion stimulus/bail-out bill that may or may not work. I don't understand economics past 'how much do I have for groceries' so I probably wouldn't get much from reading the bill if I tried, but some of the summaries you can find on-line explain some of it. You just have to try and ignore the particular bias by the sumerizer. But like I said, I don't know if it will work so all I can do is hope it will.

Look, whether it works or not, it is going to take a while for it to trickle down to small communities like we have here.

The questions we have to answer today, here in our home, is not 'will the Recovery and Reinvestment Act help us, or who gets the money?' The real questions are: 'what do we do, until help gets here? How do we keep our neighbors from going hungry or cold? Who can help?'

The answers are simple, but very difficult to put into action. What we have to do is help each other. We need to go back to those old ideas like car-pooling. You like your neighbor don't you? You both have to go to the grocery store don't you? Why not go together? Too simple an idea? So?

Why not work together this year on a shared garden? You could be part of a community garden or maybe share the work with a neighbor and share the bounty. Nobody likes pulling weeds alone, so make it a social event.

There were, once upon a time, communities right here in the High Country that had barn-raisings and house-raisings. While those types of construction gatherings may be a part of history, the attitude is the important thing. Have a garden-raising. You folks that can grow tomatoes on concrete, get out and help those of us with brown thumbs.

If your neighbor or friend needs help with home repairs and you have the know-how, help them. Then when you need to clear some brush, they can come help you. Old-fashioned concept I, know but retro is cool, right?

Go through your churches and VFD's, local businesses and civic organizations to start a project that will help. It doesn't have to save the world; just a coupon exchange box will help. Buying extra items at the store when you can and starting a swap-locker where you can bring things you find on sale that you don't like and swap it out for something you do.

There as many ideas as there are people in this county and it is time we started taking care of each other. The government is not going to, no matter who is in charge.

It is time to start collecting those ideas and get them out. So, beginning this week, I want you to start sending me those ideas so that we can start getting them out to our neighbors.

We are going to begin the Ashe County Survival Collective; a simple repository of ideas on how to live cheaper, better and, if we must, greener.

Send your ideas to me at ron@mountaintimes.com, call me at (336) 246-6397 or stop by the office at 7 East Main St., West Jefferson (across from the Parkway Theater).

If we turn back the clock a little and remember what it means to be a community, we can survive the hard times that are coming together.