We can admit it plainly: this is a ‘mell of a hess.’ Accounts hidden, money misused, trust broken. It has gone on too long without justice.
And yet, what matters is coming to the other side of prosecuting those to blame without becoming unbelievers.
Wendell Berry once wrote:
“It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are.”
Rocky Mount will not recover on anger alone. We will recover when we look to one another for something better, steadiness, care, and hope that runs deeper than the scandal.
That is how we hold on: not by ignoring the mess, but by refusing to let it make us unbelievers in this city’s future.
Stepheny Forgue Houghtlin grew up in Evanston, IL. and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. She is an author of two novels: The Greening of a Heart and Facing East. She lives, writes and gardens in NC. Visit her: Stephenyhoughtlin.com
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Main Street Rocky Mount 