I just got back from rural Mississippi and Alabama. The level of poverty in the small towns and countryside is astonishing to someone from the Northeast. I would not be surprised if the inside of many of the houses I saw was not too far advanced from this today.
It was really an eye opener as to the disparities between rich and poor areas of the country and between areas very close to each other in the same county or state. As a full-on NYC urban dweller and (maybe) aging hipster, I think it’s really important to see first hand just what things are like in the areas of the country that don’t get talked about.
Consider my eyes well and truly opened. Now to try and work out what to do with that (limited) insight.
