Are Sailors Saving History?

Dredging the Great Dismal Swamp canal after Hurricane Matthew took a year

Veterans who voted for Trump are freaking out this week after they learned they will probably lose all of their military healthcare benefits.

I took this photo below yesterday in South Mills, NC, and though I love rural and grew up in rural, this place appears to be barely holding on.

Now that the election is over, Trump (with Vance, who we'll probably never hear of again) was elected. This town will worsen.

There is nothing in his plan to help small villages like this. Most of the Project 2025 goals aim to kill all aid to these folks.

Maybe these Trump voters want to be alone, and they will figure it out without any help from the government. I hope so, but I doubt it.

I walked a mile to the only grocery store yesterday. The owner thanked me for shopping local.

I have always loved shopping locally, but in this case, shopping locally was the only choice. There is one grocery store. There is one gas station. There is one mechanic and one woodworking shop. That's all I found.

There are several churches.

The irony is I'm not local. I'm sailing down the Intracoastal Waterway, and this was just a convenient stop because bad weather is in the forecast for the next day or three.

The Great Dismal Swamp waterway maintainers here where I am today have fought hard for funding to maintain the alternate route for the Intracoastal Waterway through this area.

There is no need for this waterway except to preserve its history, which began when George Washington (the first President) bought this land and used slaves to dig this ditch. That was hundreds of years ago. The history needs to be preserved.

Under Trump's administration, cruisers like us will likely not pass through this canal or town anymore because the water depth after the next major storm could drop to six inches again. I learned that this happened after a hurricane hit here in 2016. Hurricane Michael closed the canal for a year while the government cleared the fallen trees and dredged the canal back to a depth of 6 feet.

Without the canal and its two locks opening and closing on each end working as they do now, this little township will become another signpost in history, where the area boards up and fades away because there is no demand from customers due to the government's lack of interest in preserving what was once a historic waterway.

Veterans here have two choices. Vote differently.