This is the Mill Robin Hayes Closed - Scotland County Edition

This piece was originally posted on the day that Robin Hayes voted for CAFTA after promising he would vote against it. This week, another textile mill has announced that it will be closing its doors and send its operations to a foreign country to take advantage of the cheap labor.

In 60 days almost 400 people will lose their jobs when a Westpoint Stevens plant closes in Wagram. With so few job prospects and with Scotland County already experiencing the worst unemployment in the entire state of North Carolina, you can imagine the bleakness of this situation for most of these workers.

I am posting this again in honor of the men and women who are suffering in our country, our state, in the 8th Congressional District and in Scotland County. They need Larry Kissell standing up for them in Congress. Please follow to the end of the piece and help make this a reality.







This is the mill Robin Hayes closed.




This is the man who worked all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed.














This is the bill the man couldn't pay
when he lost the job he'd had all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed.











This is the home that the bank took away
when the man lost the job he'd had all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed.





This is the woman who married the man
who lived in the home that the bank took away
when the man lost the job he'd had all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed.










This is the child who goes hungry at night
who clings to the woman who married the man
who lived in the home that the bank took away
when the man lost the job he'd had all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed.








This is the family that can't shop at the stores
to feed the child who goes hungry at night
who clings to the woman who married the man
who lived in the home that the bank took away
when the man lost the job he'd had all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed





These are the shops that closed their doors
When the family stopped shopping at all the stores
to feed the child who goes hungry at night
who clings to the woman who married the man
who lived in the home that the bank took away
when the man lost the job he'd had all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed.






This is the town that almost shut down
When the shops closed their doors
As the family stopped shopping at all the stores
to feed the child who goes hungry at night
who clings to the woman who married the man
who lived in the home that the bank took away
when the man lost the job he'd had all his life
weaving cloth in the mill Robin Hayes closed.











This is the man who lost his job, his insurance, his retirement, his home, his savings and his self esteem when Robin Hayes' actions helped send the mills and their jobs to other countries.

This is the man who worked in a mill town. A man who has seen a way of life disappearing because of NAFTA, CAFTA and Republican fiscal incompetence.

This is a man who has lost so much because Robin Hayes lied to the people of the 8th District when he promised he would vote against CAFTA, but voted for it, failing miserably to protect jobs in the district.





This is the mill Robin Hayes closed.











In July 2005, Robin Hayes broke his word to the folks living and working in the 8th Congressional District. He had promised to vote against CAFTA - a free trade agreement that would have made an already precarious unemployment situation even worse for the district. Initially, Hayes voted no, but caved to pressure from the Republican Party leadership.

This piece is dedicated to the men and women who lost their jobs and have struggled to train for new positions. This is dedicated to the families that continue to struggle and to the man who wants to help lead this district and these families toward a better future.

Please help Larry Kissell bring honest and effective leadership to North Carolina's 8th Congressional District. This link is to the Netroots fundraising page, or you can snail mail a contribution using the address you'll find at Larry's site.

Our challenge for today is to see if we can boost Larry over 10,000 individual ActBlue contributors. It's agressive, but this campaign needs money for this final push. Nobody has given this race much of a chance, but the voters are coming on strong with heavy Democratic turnout in early voting. Larry Sabato says that if there is going to be a big upset tomorrow night it will likely be this race. It will be this race.


From the bottom of my heart, Thank you. I've said it before and feel I can't say it enough - this community has inspired, supported, financed and cheered this campaign on every step of the way the past few months. All of us with our boots on the ground and our ears to the phones are doing everything we can to make sure this one is NOT a moral victory.

Special thanks to Lance McCord for the shot of the city street. It is actually from Greensboro, but all other location shots are from Kannapolis, NC. Kannapolis was the home of Pillowtex, which put 4000 people out of work when it closed. Robin Hayes family used to own the mill. The two smokestacks showing are what remain of the original mill. They are the Fieldcrest and Cannon smokestacks. Robin Hayes is a Cannon. His family's fortune is intact.