To the Editor,

There’s an old saying that goes something like “Oh what a gift God would give us to see ourselves as other see us.”

Let’s each of us imagine for a moment that we are outsiders looking at Surry County and Mount Airy in general; and, specifically at our leaders’ efforts on economic development over the past years. This is what it might look like:

After several years of our local officials brainstorming, a half dozen overlapping taxpayer funded “economic development groups,” several “executive directors” hired for those groups, countless studies and surveys, and even a few very expensive consultants; what have we gotten? It appears we are heading toward prisons, chicken poop plants, a takeover of our landfill by Waste Management, and now a homeless recruiting magnet funded by federal grants. Oh wait, I forgot; we also advertise ourselves as a tourist destination (but one where most of the stores are closed when tourist visit).

Send us your homeless, your felons, your garbage, and your chicken poop.................

Very Surry? I don’t think so.



Calvin Douglas

Mount Airy