COLBERT REPORT AND RACISM

[Dixie Dude]

I live in Auburn, Alabama.  The school system here is ranked 57th in the nation.  The classrooms are limited to 12-15 students per teacher.  All 9th graders are given a laptop computer to use through high school.  Their textbooks are downloaded onto their laptops.  The also have a good firewall to keep them away from bad websites.  The town was recently listed somewhere as one of the top small towns in America to live in.  The area dukkillr listed is the poorest part of the state.  There are around a million people in an around Birmingham and its subburbs.  Outlying towns and subburbs are very upscale.  Most of my great aunts and uncles I remember in the 50's and 60's growing up in the country had outhouses and well water.  When they got indoor plumbing, they wouldn't use it, thought it was nasty using the bathroom in the house.  The county I live in outlawed outhouses in the 60's so everyone had to get indoor plumbing.  Yes, there are still pockets of poor and the black belt area is probably still that way.  Living in the poor countryside is still in my opinion much much better than the inner cities of the north.  Just within 60 miles of where I live, we have Hundai and Kia auto assembly plants, a Goodrich tire plant, and several auto parts suppliers.  We have a Briggs and Stratton plant in Auburn as well as parts suppliers for Mercedes which is located in Tuscaloosa about 3 hours away.   

[Yankee1]

Hi All
    If I remember correctly the F22 Fighter was built in Georgia and it is the most advanced fighter built. Just thought I'd throw that little fact in the pot.
                                  Yankee1

[Dixie Dude]

We have Marshall Spaceflight center in Huntsville.  The Delta IV rocket is built in Decatar.  We have the following tire manufacturing companies:  Michilin, Goodrich, Goodyear, and I think Firestone.  Auto plants:  Hundai, Mercedes, and Honda.  We have an airplane factory bidding on a new air force tanker plane located in Mobile.  We have a steel pipe manufacturer in Birmingham as well as other things.  Yes, we have lost almost if not all our textile industry.  Just because some liberal journalists goes to the black belt counties and says we are poor, doesn't mean all are.  60% of the people living in Auburn have college degrees.  Of course it is a college town.  We also have numerous auto supply manufacturers for aluminum rims, wiring harnesses, etc.  However, some people like to live slow and simple.  We have nuclear power plants in north Alabama and in Dothan.  We have numerous hydroelectric dams with good fishing and recreation in the empoundments.  Lake Martin near where I live is where I fish, ski, and swim.  The lake is one of the cleanest lakes in the nation, no major industry or city upstream.  We have good national forests and state game preserves to hunt in.  We have coal mining, natural gas production in north Alabama as well as natural gas and oil in Mobile bay and just offshore.  We have iron ore near Birmingham and lots of limestone.