Charlotte, North Carolina: In addition to talking to Nicole in the Albermarle Christian bookstore, we also spoke with a woman appropriately named Hope. Hope was a little older than Nicole, but certainly within the confines of a young voter. She spoke eruditely about the town, and shed some light on the youth of the area. She talked about how Albermarle, along with North Carolina was getting more and more progressive with the advent of the internet and access to more news sources and opinions. She spoke of young people in the area arguing with their parents more than ever, and that there was a kind of breakdown in communication between the generations.
She said one of the solutions of the town was to create a new youth group, one founded within the confines of religion without being strictly religious. Run by members of the church, the group could function as a place where young people could talk about things they felt uncomfortable discussing with their families (from drug problems to politics).
To me, this seems like a microcosm for the changes we are seeing in North Carolina. Still a state with many Southern values, North Carolina has the chance of voting Democratic for the first time since 1976.
2 responses so far ↓
Greg // June 11, 2008 at 9:22 pm |
Hope’s take on the breakdown of communications between the generations makes me wonder when (if ever) there was not a difficulty communicating between generations. I guess the rate of change from one generation to the next has grown faster, so it keeps getting harder to relate to older or younger people. It makes me happy to think of young people who can’t talk with their parents about things are looking to other young people for community, we don’t do that enough.
I think you guys should visit Stone Mountain, its got huge relief carvings of Davis, Jackson and Lee, and all kinds of KKK history too.
Eric // June 11, 2008 at 10:23 pm |
It is interesting that Hope thinks the internet has been a boon for progressives in North Carolina, when so many people I know in Boston or New York see the web as a place where conservatives and neocons run wild.
Also, in addition to the stone carvings of Davis et al., Stone Mountain also features regular laser shows… I agree with Greg it’s worth checking out.