| LOOKING BACK
HERE IN A BACKWOODS COUNTY, A QUARTER CENTURY WENT BY QUICKLY
GET READY: 2025 WILL BE A TUMULTUOUS YEAR
By Bob Weaver Jan. 1, 2025
In times past, virtually all church doors and houses were left unlocked.
No trespassing posters were never seen, now they are thousands.
You picked up every hitchhiker along the way.
Your had sit-down breakfast, lunch and dinner, and great weekend dinners with family and neighbors.
People in the community were connected, attached to their place here on earth - fast fading are people of place.
When you borrowed money, all it took was a handshake.
School students were allowed to walk distances to the bus stop, now a parent or guardian must be present when they get off the bus.
Nearly every family attended church, now most are closed or with just a few attending. God is getting tossed in a politically driven hole.
People once actually volunteered.
The prominence of social media in the 21st Century has led to the "Me Generation," where participants focus on Selfies and have become their own writer, photographer, and editor - and it is from those Truth Telling platforms that most people form their opinions, imbued by Artificial Intelligence.
Kids in the last Century actually had family chores, now with 21st Century technology, their eyes are on a screen, watching, playing and communicating, once person to person talking was the way to communicate and learn.
Obesity was limited to unfortunate few by genetics, now West Virginia leads the nation with childhood obesity, it being a major health problem.
With 21st Century surveillance there is only an illusion of privacy.
In most cases, conspiracy theories have nearly overwhelmed science, and the official news outlets are so polarized, all of them "truth tellers," they are in it for the ratings and bucks. About half of US citizens believe Climate Change is a hoax.
Now the Great American Experiment and its institutions are on wobbly legs, and could be joining Democratic governments around the world in collapse.
The next great collapse will be devastating, all it takes is for the grids to go down and millions will thrust into hunger and chaos.
Well, here we are, as WV leads the nation on the 50 state worst lists.
Hopefully, these glum and sad reports and observations prove to be wrong.
Still, with all the changes, here in the West Virginia mountains, it is a safe and wonderful place to live - blessed. | 
