I thought that Catherine Flowers was super badass! She is so incredibly humble and laid back for someone who is as accomplished and acclaimed as she is. A lot of what she said resonated a lot with me because I spent the summer teaching in Conetoe, NC, which is an extremely rural and impoverished town in Eastern NC. She discussed the lack of policy for Americans living in poverty in rural areas. Most of our welfare efforts and policies tend to be focused on urban areas. I definitely witnessed this in Conetoe, where many of the kids I taught lived in trailers and other poorly built housing structures. She talked about the racial disparities and inequalities that are so widespread through these rural areas, and that was also quite evident in Conetoe. Conetoe was about a 10 minute drive from Tarboro, a small town that had a lot of wealthier white families. There was a clear line between the end of the wealthier suburbs of Tarboro, which was filled with charming old Southern houses with white picket fences, and the poor neighborhoods of Conetoe. She also talked about climate refugees, specially citing some communities in LA on the coast. Princeville, a town slightly east of Conetoe that is also quite poor, was devastated by floods from Hurricane Matthew, and that caused many people to be displaced from their homes as well.

 

There was one thing that Catherine said that I did not quite agree with on all fronts. She said that she didn’t think there should be a push to move people into cities. She said people who are living in rural areas are there because they want to stay there. However, I have mixed feelings about this. It’s obviously not my place as a white, upper middle class girl who grew up in very white, upper middle class suburban neighborhood to form any sound judgement on this matter. However, the director of the Conetoe Family Life Center (the education organization that I worked for) did have a differing opinion, and I do think that he had the experience to back up his opinion. His name is Dr. Garrie Moore, and in the past couple years, he and Reverend Joyner have completely transformed the town of Conetoe through their Family Life Center. Conetoe was a food dessert with poor health rates and no summer or after school opportunities for children. The CFLC has drastically helped change all of this through its garden and education programs. Dr. Moore has spent much of his life in eastern NC, in both more rural areas like Conetoe and more urban areas like Greenville (a city about 25 min from Conetoe). For the past year, he has been ardently working on a vision of his to start a charter boarding school in Greenville. He secured a location for it and has been trying to attain funds to hire top notch teachers. Once he establishes this school, he wants to move kids from Conetoe to this boarding school in Greenville. Why? Because he is ADAMANT that the rural community of Conetoe has nothing to offer for these kids. He told me time and time again that the urban setting of Greenville offered so much more for them in terms of both health infrastructure and opportunities. He said it is so hard for children in Conetoe to stay motivated to continue their education and pursue a meaningful career. He frequently referenced one of the kids who went through the CFLC as a kid but then shot and killed a man a few years after graduating high school. I know that it is heartbreaking for him to see good kids go through his program but then not have any opportunities because of the rural environment that they live in. And after spending a summer with some of these kids, I wholeheartedly agree with him. I know that Catherine said that we need to change the infrastructure of these rural communities, but in order to have them offer the same opportunities and benefits as urban areas, we really will ultimately just end up converting them to cities (which I feel like Catherine is against, since she valued the historical importance of rural settings). Rural areas need improvements in education, housing infrastructure, medical/health centers, and food options. Also, rural areas are not as sustainable as cities. Catherine said that her family all lives in the city but still owns their historically owned land, but no one is living on it. When we are running out of arable land to use to house and feed our growing populations, it seems problematic to me to hold on to land for sentimental value.

 

I’m definitely way beyond word count, but I do want to emphasize that I did love her lecture despite having a few qualms with her beliefs on rural environments! I thought that what she said about climate gentrification was extremely interesting and concerning — I had not really heard about it before, and I think it is problematic that more people aren’t talking about it because it seems like something that we really need to fight. I also really liked her idea that anytime we act, we should look at how it would impact seven generations from now. Lastly, I loved that she said we need to find something to hold onto to give us hope, “even if it’s your dog”. I think that remaining positive/hopeful is one of the best things you can do for yourself in any situation, but especially within the context of environmentalism.