Linda Johnson

This week you visited the rual Alabama town about sewage in their yards. Well, outhouses and chamber pots have been used back in my early childhood. We didn't run tubes out to the yards. Every so often the outhouse would be cleaned out and burned. In the winter we wore everything we had to go to the bathroom in the cold, winter days and nights. It was hard but we did what we had to do. At 10 years old I came home to an empty house and boiled water on the stove to put into a #10 wash tub to take my bath and wash my hair. My Mother would hold up rags to our heater and wrap it around my head to dry my hair. It was HARD but we were clean. Now if you buy a piece of land it has to perk in order to put in a septic system and the septic tank has to be installed before you can move in a mobile home or build a house. Why didn't you ask how long have they lived in their homes? Did they inherit their homes and grew up with this? I have to work and pay for my septic system. Yes, I am white but I grew up poor and the thing I wanted most was a bathroom with a bathtub and shower that was warm I worked hard to change things for my life. I only finished high school but I was blessed to work my way up in a company and now I am retired. I worked with black people that worked as hard as I did to get better living conditions and they did. You need to dig deeper in that story before you reach your hand out to the government. They could move to another place where the government helps with the rent and they would have septic systems. So many other options but you didn't ever talk about options...just hold out your hand for another hand out. And PLEASE quit talking about Alabama in a bad light. Come live here for awhile before you judge..find out ALL the story. Offer solutions instead of asking for help.