alive but not living

It was 20 degrees this morning in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Some people there are living in tents. Thousands across the region are living in trailers or cheap motel rooms – waiting for help that has yet to arrive. The plight of those who survived the biblical floods of Hurricane Helene – where entire towns and villages were wiped from the face of the Earth. The networks news anchors with their perfectly-coifed hair and pouty lips never came. There was no wall-to-wall coverage from the mud-covered ruins. It’s as if the plight of the working-class mountain folks in North Carolina and Tennessee don’t seem to tug at the heartstrings of FEMA or the network news anchors – all dolled up in their makeup and disaster-relief costumes. But the truth is that there aren’t that many celebrities who live in the hills and hollows of Western North Carolina. Not too many billionaires. Just hard-working, church-going country folks. And dadgummit - their lives should matter, too.