Lilred's Rant of the Week: The Commonwealth

[Lilred]

Ya'll know I aint very good at explainin myself, but I will try my best..because most of you will not understand my point.
The state of Virginia..I'm very proud of the state I live in. It's the oldest state in these here US of A, and yet, it's the most wooded, clean and peaceful places I have seen. There's no place like home, yep, I'm partial. But when in the year 2005, you can see every star, nary a light, and still breathe fresh air and listen to crickets, tree frogs, never hear a car pass and hear the whipperwhills in the trees that surround you..just as you could in 1805..the state has preserved itself under the circumstances.

We never had big ole factories like the north, our revenue was generated, by the most part, by baccer. (tobacco). We make fiddles and wine too..but most, even in the 70's, was baccer.
400 yrs of baccer growers, generations of farms, are no more. The people of "washington" shut us down. Told us to grow organic corn & maters.
Hint: people who have only mastered the fine "art" of growin baccer generation after generation couldnt fathum growin corn. The state dont even have the facilities to house ner ship such amounts of "organic" food. So, instead of exportin the baccer grown in our state, we import it from South America.

And, to any Virginian who has lived here fer generations, I will have to explain how "we" feel. We have been invaded yet again. They bring their factories, and people who have used up their land are now movin on to "fresher meat", namely, Virginia.
I am 30. 15 yrs ago (which aint that long) I remember dirt roads and farms. Now all I see is subdivisions, interstates and people. My God at the people. All w/ a city slicker's attitude. Never wave when they pass, always gripin bout all the woods they have to pass through. So, they cut em down.
The farmers caint grow, so they are forced to sell.
Our mtns are bein blown to flat land to support the people.
Trash now litter the sides of our roads. Bumper-to-bumper traffic now covers the hills instead of barns.
We caint stop em, we caint control em. To most people, the "war" was fought fer alot of reasons, some right, some wrong. But the greatest reason was for state's rights to keep what they had intact. I'll give the state credit for holdin back the legions for as long as they have, but it's over. It's spreadin like the plague.

So, I reckon if you caint understand the "Southern" pov, er the reason why Virginia in itself is still is this constant "rehashin" of such old things, it aint because we're stupid er weird. It's because of what we are goin through now. Dont git me wrong..I aint no "confederate" w/ rebel flags flyin in my yard..lol..I aint that way. But, it is pure torment watchin the destruction of such a beautiful place that I call home.
No offense to any Michigander here, there are some fine people there. But I could not git over fishin rivers and places, and never catchin ANYTHING. My hubby (who was born & raised there) explained that when he was lil, there was never anything in the rivers at all, cause of the pesticide runoff from the farms and factories. All I could think about was Virginia, and how the smallest creek would provide a good mess of any kind of fish anyday...and I was distraught sittin there all day and never even gittin a bite on such a perty river er pond.
The once creek we fished, was copper colored. I asked him why was the water so dingy. He said cause of the high mineral content. (I took it as pesticides)
It would break my heart to see our ponds and rivers that way.
But, it's comin. Soon, the deer will be gone, the fish will all die out.
My hubby said that "extensive environmental protection" has been in place fer MI rivers and such since when he was a kid, and that's great. But why destroy what you had in the first place?
Sorry..I'm ramblin..I'll shutup bout it.
But, I will try to find myself a mountain somewhere, where they caint reach, and hopefully I will die fore they take that too.