With this view of the Smokey Mountains as a backdrop, it was impossible not to think about those who settled what is now the state of North Carolina.
If those of us who gathered there for a visit last week are any indication, the early settlers in our family would have been unsettled by the Vice-Presidential Debate and up-in-arms over the bailout.
Our nation was founded by people who cherished freedom. Looking across the mountains and into the valley below, you get a sense of the hardships endured by those freedom-seeking settlers that moved further inland.
The ability to tell a maverick from a renegade has long been a survival skill in our nation – and, with that thought in mind as I returned to Mississippi, I plan to be closely watching and carefully listening to tonight’s debate.