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π§ Opening Reflection:
To the Ones Still Out There
This is for those who have never quite felt at home in the world as it has become. For those who step into a room and, without a word, sense the distance between themselves and everyone else. Not because they are uncertain or unprepared, but because they see more than they are expected to see. They remember what things once meant, and they recognize what is quietly being lost—even when no one else will speak of it.
If you have ever sat through a meeting and wondered, Am I the only one who notices how shallow and performative this is?—then this is meant for you. If you have watched people pursue prestige at the expense of purpose, or repackage dysfunction as progress, you are not mistaken. You are simply ahead of the moment. You are one of the few who have not traded instinct for acceptance.
The world does not reward those who stay fully awake. It calls them difficult, or bitter, or unyielding. Yet the truth is that such people were made for something different—not for performance, not for obedience, but for discernment. For signal. For the kind of clarity that is earned only by living close to pain and still choosing to build.
That has been my aim with this work—not merely to describe events, but to signal to others that they are not alone. The feeling of dislocation, of not belonging, of being unseen—these are not failures. They are evidence of awareness. Of conscience. Of a refusal to be bent into the prevailing shape.
When I write about the decay of civic institutions, about economic trends or cultural decline, it is not out of superiority. It is because the work must be done, and because I know there are others who feel it too—people who have not stopped caring, even when caring has become exhausting; people who keep showing up, even when it seems to make no difference.
It does make a difference.
Even if you are never celebrated. Even if your presence goes unnoticed. Even if you are pushed aside, dismissed, or quietly written off. What you carry—the weight, the awareness, the ability to name what others avoid—is not a burden. It is a compass. And we need every compass we can find.
I do not write for the crowd. I write for those who choose to live with integrity. For those who work quietly, mend what they can, and refuse to bend truth for the sake of ease. If you are one of them, this belongs to you as much as it belongs to me.
There is still time to shape what comes next—but only if we stop waiting for someone else to act. Only if we refuse to bury what we know in order to fit in. The world may not understand you. It may never reward you. That does not mean you are wrong.
It means you are still awake... And you are not alone
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π€This Week:
(Monday) The Foothills Corridor: Intro & The Collapse - August 10, 2025
π https://thehoundssignal.substack.com/p/the-foothills-corridor
This opening chapter confronts the economic and cultural dismantling of western North Carolina’s industrial backbone. Tracing the fall from manufacturing powerhouse to hollowed-out communities, it exposes the role of trade policy, corporate greed, and political neglect. It is both a reckoning with deliberate abandonment and a call to preserve the grit and craftsmanship that remain.
(Tuesday) Dear Rachel: Carrying the Weight – August 12, 2025
π https://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2025/08/dear-rachel-carrying-weight-august-12.html - This episode explores the burden of returning to a struggling hometown, balancing love for place against the cost of trying to save it. Through letters from a returner, a displaced factory worker, and a contented local, Rachel offers candid counsel: protect your energy, choose your battles, and remember that awareness is not the same as obligation.
(Thursday) Disconnected Commutes: The Transportation Divide in Catawba County - August 14, 2025
π https://thehickoryhound.blogspot.com/2025/08/disconnected-commutes-transportation.html - Catawba County’s reliance on private vehicles and underdeveloped transit leaves seniors, students, and low-wage workers stranded in “transit deserts.” This analysis exposes how decades of car-centric planning deepen economic and civic divides, and calls for integrated, equitable transportation reform that connects housing, jobs, healthcare, and education to restore mobility, opportunity, and community trust.
(Friday) The Foothills Corridor: Chapter 2 – Parallel Declines
π https://thehoundssignal.substack.com/p/the-foothills-corridor-chapter-2-parallel-declines - This chapter draws sharp parallels between the Foothills Corridor’s industrial collapse and the Rust Belt’s decades-long decline. It examines shared causes—globalization, automation, and policy neglect—while contrasting recovery strategies in peer cities. The piece argues that Hickory still holds structural advantages, but only decisive diversification, cultural investment, and unified leadership can prevent it from repeating the Rust Belt’s mistakes.
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⭐️ Feature Story ⭐️
The Dynamics of a Healthy Person
(A Civic Health Checkup for Hickory)
When national and regional studies place Hickory and Catawba County near the bottom in obesity, well‑being, and access to health resources, it’s not anecdotal—it’s evidence that civic health is suffering. If wellness is a community's pulse, then Hickory’s is faint. How do we revive it? Here’s a breakdown of six vital dimensions, each essential to individual and civic resilience.
1. Physical Environment: Active, Safe, Walkable
Catawba County’s recent Community Health Assessment highlights a nagging shortfall: many neighborhoods lack access to safe, engaging, active spaces (ClearImpact). Parks, sidewalks, and recreational areas aren’t equitably dispersed—particularly in neighborhoods like Ridgeview and Southeast Hickory, which also bear high rates of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes (Catawba County). Health isn’t just personal; it’s shaped by streets and greenways—or their absence. If your walk to the clinic or the corner store is unsafe, your health choices shrink. Civic vitality demands infrastructure that invites movement as much as it allows it.
2. Nutrition & Food Access
Despite farmland surrounding Hickory, many residents live in “food-access deserts.” Catawba ranks poorly against state averages in access to healthy, affordable groceries (Catawba County . With lower‑income households especially vulnerable, the disconnect between local agriculture and accessible nutrition speaks to broader structural failure. Food access isn’t a retail issue—it’s a health equity issue. Encouraging local markets, mobile produce units, and partnerships with farmers’ networks isn’t charity—it’s civic commons.
3. Obesity & Chronic Disease
Obesity remains a deep concern across western North Carolina. In 2021, 35.4% of adults in WNC were obese—and half of those had high blood pressure; nearly a quarter had diabetesWNC Health Network. Within Catawba County, some neighborhoods have obesity rates nearing 50%, hypertension at 45%, and diabetes at nearly 20% (Catawba County). These conditions don’t appear overnight—they’re the compounded effects of sedentary design, poor diets, and fragmented healthcare access. Civic health suffers when a third or more of the population lives with chronic, preventable illness.
4. Brain Health & Mental Well-Being
The County’s health plan has reframed behavioral health as “brain health”—a move toward destigmatization and long-term resilience (Catawba County). Post‑pandemic, mental well‑being matters more than ever. But services remain unevenly distributed; access still hinges on geography, awareness, and infrastructure. Long waits, limited clinics, and stigma mean many go untreated. A healthy person must be able to find help when minds fray—not just bodies.
5. Demographic Pressures & Health Equity
Catawba County’s population is growing more diverse: Whites account for ~72%, Black residents for 8%, and Hispanic or Latino reach nearly 11% (Wikipedia). Health disparities follow uneven lines: low-income, Black, and Indigenous residents in WNC report significantly higher obesity and hypertension rates (WNC Health Network). Equitable civic health can’t ignore these disparities. Designing health programs without an explicit equity lens is complacency masquerading as benevolence.
6. Civic Metrics & Accountability
Echoing your Platform for 21st Century Hickory, we must not ignore independent ranking systems. Hickory’s metro area has long scored in the bottom tier on Gallup Well‑Being, obesity, and economic vitality indices (Gallup.com)(communityclinicalconnections.com). These metrics aren’t curses—they’re a clear call to action. We should proactively study how these rankings are constructed, engage with their authors, and track annual progress with honest accountability. Without data-driven correction, civic health regresses faster than it improves.
Conclusion: Toward a Healthier Civic Body
A healthy person is more than an absence of disease—they are shaped by how neighborhoods move, eat, connect, and support each other. Hickory still carries many structural advantages—accessible geography, civic institutions, and cultural identity—but metrics remind us we’re underperforming. The path forward demands infrastructural equity, cultural investment, and candid accountability. Let’s use The Dynamics of a Healthy Person not as a final diagnosis, but as a launch point for seasonal deep dives—into recreation access, food equity, healthcare deserts, mental health, youth wellness, and the ties between civic design and physical vitality. We owe ourselves nothing less.
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My Own Time Ξ©
Mission Statement – Week of August 14, 2025
Hickory’s health, economy, and livability are not the products of chance—they are the outcome of decades of choices that have shaped our daily lives. National and regional rankings make this plain. They are not meant to shame, but to give us a factual baseline from which progress can be measured.
Health is more than medicine. It is built into our streets, sidewalks, food access, and the opportunities to work and live with dignity. It is found in the connections that bind our community and in the infrastructure that sustains them.
The Hickory Hound exists to keep an unvarnished record of where we stand, why we are here, and how we can change course. This week’s focus, The Dynamics of a Healthy Person, is a call to shared responsibility. If we face the truth, we can build a community that thrives by intent—not by accident.
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π°️ In Closing:
Haiku:
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