Last month, about 150 people converged on Raleigh for the pinnacle of a 51-hour hog vigil. Busloads full of children and old-timers from Halifax, Duplin, Sampson, and Bladen counties, where the stench of hog poop is a way of life. Joining them were students and residents from 28 other counties in North Carolina.
All across the lawn of the state capital, our words sprayed out in a powerful arc like the liquid hog waste that routinely sprays land in eastern North Carolina. We hoped to saturate the ground, the air, and the people with disgust. Gov. Mike Easley’s (D) 1999 campaign promise to get rid of all hog lagoons in the state within five years has yet be delivered. The protesters intended to make sure he doesn’t forget it.
They even serenaded him with a pungent ditty:
Governor Easley he did sayPigee, PigeeIn 5 years lagoons go awayStinkin’, stinkin’Easley’s nose oh it did grow, for lying like PinocchioEasley, did poop poo right on me.
Few places in the world have been pooped on more than Eastern North Carolina in the past 20 years. As jobs in textiles and tobacco moved out over the past few decades, the hog industry mo... Read more
