The great Southern writer Eudora Welty once said, "Our place understood helps us understand all places." I spend a fair amount of time trying to understand Wilcox County.
As a community, we were more saddened than surprised to learn of the impending closing of J. Paul Jones Hospital in Camden. It has served this area for 60 years, but has been on life-support for quite a while. It is hemorrhaging money. And of course the fingers are wagging in all directions as they always do in these situations. It has been blamed on poor local leadership, inept management, Obamacare, Alabama Republican leaders, Lyndon Johnson, and people using the emergency room during the night like it's a health clinic. But really there is nobody to blame. Rural hospitals are closing at an alarming rate.
Several residents gathered Sunday afternoon at J. Paul Jones to pray for an intervention that would allow the hospital to stay open, but the announcement from the hospital board offered little hope. Governor Kay Ivey, who is from Camden, said there is nothing much she can do. She said it was a "difficult decision."
The good news - if you can call it that - is that part of the hospital will be converted into an urgent care center and the ambulance service will remain in operation.
The future of Wilcox County may seem uncertain, but the economy has been stalled here for over 30 years. We aren't new to setbacks or hurdles. We've seen industry leave, businesses go under, and several stores and restaurants close. We continue to have the highest unemployment in the state even as the state unemployment rate declines.
There are too many vacant buildings and too many real estate signs. School enrollment in both the private and public school systems is down. The county's population has declined. There has been a lack of investment, workforce development, and infrastructure development.
A message from a reader last week asked if I would write a column about County Road 1 from Sunny South to Lower Peach Tree. "Just take a ride this way," she wrote, "it hasn't been repaved in 20 years."
It is one of many roads and bridges throughout the county in need of attention they won't soon receive due again to the lack of funding.
Crime is also becoming an issue too big to ignore. There has been an up-kick in break-ins. In recent months, just within the city limits of Camden, McDonald's Grocery, Handi-man Hardware, Bernard's Body Shop, and the QV service station were broken into, along with The Dollar General, Wilmar Trucking, Headz Outdoors, Henry's Red and White Grocery, and the State Farm Insurance office. Plus there were two houses targeted on Pine Street in three days, one of which resulted in the homeowner being injured by a gunshot.
Surveillance videos have not been released requesting the public's help in identifying anyone involved, but the public did donate money for a reward leading to the arrest of whoever was responsible for the shooting, though there have been no arrests.
We pride ourselves in the simple, rural way of life we enjoy here. It's a lifestyle that seems to be becoming more and more jeopardized. And we are all just trying to understand our place.
Amanda Walker is a blogger and contributor with AL.com, The Thomasville Times, West Alabama Watchman, Alabama Gazette and Wilcox Progressive Era. Contact her at Walkerworld77@msn.com or at https://www.facebook.com/AmandaWalker.Columnist.