Kate Wargo moved to Asheville in fall 2021 with hopes for a fresh start. Teaching elementary school during the COVID-19 pandemic had left her exhausted, anxious and depressed. “It was the first time I felt dehumanized,” she says of the previous two years teaching fourth grade in Pennsylvania.
“Each March since 2020, the ivyleaf speedwell has returned and reminded me of a time of simplicity, anxiety, joy and boredom.”
As the demand for public health careers rises, future public health practitioners share the field’s diverse employment opportunities and how to address the mistrust of governmental institutions and the medical industry spurred by the pandemic.
“Our new interim police chief, Michael Lamb, City Manager Debra Campbell and the Council need to listen to a new plan so that Asheville can regain the national reputation it once had as the Eastern mountain destination.”
“It’s an all-out war on the homeless, supported by comfortable people who profit from tourism and gentrification. Where is our compassion for those less fortunate than we are?”
“It is easy to blame politicians for their shortcomings, but when are we going to address the fact that our private, for-profit hospitals have been intentionally under- and defunded to ‘cut costs’ in the name of enriching hospital CEOs?”
“I started bringing excess API food in to share with my co-workers at Sonic.”
“ACM has always been about more than gymnastics, and this past year, that has mattered more than ever.”
“Caught in the middle, our small farmers struggle to balance wages with prices the market will bear, while treating workers fairly.”
A year has passed since Buncombe County recorded its first Covid-19 death on March 28, 2020. Since then, another 293 people have died. In the official government record, they’ll be remembered as statistics of a pandemic that killed swiftly and indiscriminately, but to their families, friends and neighbors, they were so much more.
“I would have thought that it would be more advantageous for the City Council to redirect the resources and money that are being used on the street renaming and Vance monument removal projects to address more immediate issues caused by the pandemic.”
“I’m surprised I need to say this, but you can’t compare dating in NYC to dating in Asheville. They’re Big Apples and Orange Peels.”
