A lot of people I know have been speaking their I-coulda-told-you-so dismay over word from Bristol that the factory is pulling out. I spent the night of the day I heard about it writing twice this length and still not getting it all said. It pushed some buttons I didn't know were there.

Back in the days of the hubbub over this big German factory that consented to construct here on the condition that county citizens be given the option to pay ten dollars a year extra on vehicle tax or don't get our tags renewed, I wondered. I did not see democracy anywhere in that decision then and don't see it now. That was my primary resentment.

When the town's merchants were excited and painting white shoe polish rah-rah words on shop windows along Main Street in a kind of grown-up pep rally for Bristol, I wondered. Shortly after the beginning we learned the corporation intended to keep its promises made to us in the courtship phase as the U.S. government honors treaties with Indians.

I think I recall more or less accurately something about emphasis on hiring from this county. I think I remember something about a difference in pay between what was promised and delivered. I remember something about execs dropping off with heart attacks from the stressful pace of putting the factory together.

Something like that happens when American corporations set up in Bangladesh demanding high-speed performance from people in the worst kind of poverty, devoid of education, who will work for anything, and do. That's why the factories are leaving Sparta.

Labor in the slums of Asian or African cities goes for a lot less than it does here. And here ain't much.

Because here ain't much is why the factories we had came here in the first place. The Southern distrust of Yankee labor unions made the South ripe for corporations on the prowl looking for cheap labor. Now the corporations are leaving the country for cheaper Third World labor, working pregnant teenage unwed mothers for next to nothing in countries without labor laws. It's called globalization.

This time we're in has presented a great challenge to our community. One factory after another leaving for cheaper pastures is a shock to the economic system, especially it happening all at once. A lot of people are and will be looking foreclosure square in the face, which equals a lot of heart-break, a blow to self-esteem and a red stamp on the forehead from the bank: F. Meaning, you're no good. Just because you took a job in a factory that promised better than it delivered.

Where a challenge is, there a possible solution is, too. In this case I see it taking several solutions, simply because there are several people, several life circumstances involved. I hear people asking each other what can come in here next to give us jobs? I want to ask what if nothing comes in here from out there next?

I thought the mountain heritage was one of self-sufficiency. I hear complaints all the time about flatlanders moving to the mountains and telling the hillbillies what this place needs to do to be more like where they came here from.

My father worked in a GM factory through the late 40s and early 50s, getting laid-off periodically in that rollercoaster era of frequent recessions after WWII. During lay-offs he worked as a milkman, barbershop supply salesman, cab driver and whatever else he could find. I vowed to myself at a young age I would not give my adult life to a corporation.

Alleghany County has a tremendous amount of potential that is going unused. It looks like the age of factories is over. A lot of people here are good examples of how to create something for yourself to do where the job pickins is slim. We have a lot of locally owned and operated businesses. If people like working in factories so much, let's think creatively together and start some factories owned by investment clubs.

We have enough resources, talents, knowledge, skills, creative minds, that, working together for the good of all concerned, can work. Courses at WCC and workshops given by people who have created businesses on their own that serve a need here could go a long way to encourage young people who don't want to leave the mountains to make for themselves a way to stay here. Creative lenders investing in people needing some help to get started might be part of it. Some self-esteem classes would help.

We need more automotive repair businesses. We owe Blevins gratitude for taking up the Lowe's slack. We can provide a lot more for ourselves in a cooperative spirit than otherwise. The better we all do together, the better we all do individually, and the other way around. It's the American way, even more so than greed. Let's have a pep rally for making the only place we can do something about, our immediate world, what we want it to be. Now is a good time to start. Fresh lemons make the best lemonade.

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