phone calls to factory managers and remarkable grit. “Factory Man” is the patriotic story of a family legacy, a relentless work ethic that includes 1 a.m. More than 19,000 textile and furniture factory workers lost their jobs in Henry County and Martinsville, but two hours away in Galax, John Bassett fought back to keep his 700 factory workers employed. I first wrote a feature on him for The Roanoke Times as part of a series on the impact of globalization in southside and southwest Virginia. “He’s an asshole!” more than one of his competitors barked, when they heard I was writing a book about globalization with him as my main character. He’s a sawdust-covered good-old boy from rural Virginia, a larger-than-life rule-breaker who for more than a decade has stood almost single-handedly against the outflow of furniture jobs from America. Once in a storytelling career, if one is very lucky, a character like John Bassett III comes along.

Almost daily the Hope Initiative took a call about a heroin user from Hidden Valley or nearby Cave Spring, and police data showed that the problem was worse by far in those two communities than in other, less affluent areas of the county.Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis | Courtesy The Roanoke Times But the affluence she believed would protect her family had instead allowed the festering of shame and inaction. She’d explained how she’d pulled strings to get her kids into the Hidden Valley school zone because she considered it a superior place to raise children. She’d told her son’s story recently to the local school board and county officials, hoping to raise money for the county’s risk prevention council, which was currently running on fumes and a few small federal grants. “That’s crazy! We’ve created this problem, and now we decide we’re just going to continue to let it happen, and that’s the answer?”Īnd yet she was miles ahead of most leaders in her conservative community. When I told Janine about an idea hatched at an opioid brainstorming session in Boston-to segregate users on a boat in international waters, where they could legally inject under medical supervision, ideally then transitioning to counseling and MAT-she was repulsed.

Harm reduction remained slow to catch on in most of the Bible Belt, including Roanoke.

Beth macy author