We took off on a trip to visit our daughter Rebekkah in Louisville, Kentucky and my wifes brother in Morganton, NC. And we succeded at both very well.

Rebekkah is struggling at colleege to be a teacher and a student at the same time and Steve is struggling to raise a family in the industrialized south. Rebekkah sees students every day who are clueless about living on their own but trying and succeeding in various degrees. Steve sees his friends and his jobs going south to Mexico and Mexicans coming north to take the jobs he can't afford to.

The disparity of living standards in both countries create a drain of talent from Mexico and a drain of work from the States.

But the people who are staying are taking on new skills and finding the way to move ahead.

Every where we went I saw people moving forward. New contruction replacing old. People out and about, rebuilding and building new. This was very evident in Louisville where the old city residences have been given a new life by restoration.

In Morganton I meet a man named Daniel Honeycutt who openned a music shop the very morning I walked through his door. Beautiful vintage Gibson accoustics and fine old Fender elctrics. He said he had to try it on his own. He was gonna tell everyone his first customer was from NY.

The words of war and sniper shootings were everywhere I looked. In the news stands and on the TV but when I was out in the city or the hills, or at The Crackerbarrell or the gas station the war was never mentioned. The sniper was surely on peoples minds as we traveled up through Virginia but not on the lips of people I talked too. Instead I heard people talking about their kids, the travel, the farm, the circus.

What I saw was a beautiful landscape and I meet universally friendly people. I saw people moving forward and if it was 100 steps forward and 99 back it was still a gain. And if the motion wasn't fast enough for some it was still moving.

I can't wait to go back.

Don