Page 14 - Mountain Pride News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> they believe strongly in self reliance. >> lonnie is a retired inge ner. >> made do or do without. >> for countless generations the people of ash county made due by growing tobacco raising cattle on small family ranches and producing lumber from the vast forests that surround it. >> what did they do when hard times came? >> my daddy got 250 a day -- 2. day. this mountain pride took over. >> we heard a lot about this thing called mountain pride. this deeply held belief that it is best to do for one's self. but as the federal government

Counteracting what they described as mountain pride. >> it makes me very angry, very angry. >> unbelievable. it seems to me it is in reverse. we should be getting award for the people we get off the food stamps and find them a job. >> at its deepest level, the motivation that drives a government to encourage people to take benefits they say they don't need, i think it is a difficult thing to understand. >> reporter: the usda, they decline to speak with us, they did send us this 39 page report, basically summing the usda's mission. it seems to boil down on some level to put as many eligible ame...

>> reporter: lee mcmillan a local business man. >> it has been tough times here. >> reporter: what kind of folks did this land produce? >> they were a fiercely independent bunch of people, believed strongly in self reliance. >> reporter: loni is a retired engineer. >> they do, or do without. ♪ >> reporter: for countless generations, the people of ashe may do by growing tobacco, raising cattle on small family ranches, producing lumber from the vast forests that still surround them. what do they do when hard times came? >> my daddy got a job logging. >> reporter: he is a retired saw miller. >>...

Taking it, makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. they think they should overcome mountain pride. >> reporter: here is what happened. a local social services worker, partly funded by a usda grant, figured out while folks value self reliance too much to actually accept government money for groceries, they would accept it to buy seeds to plant in their gardens. that proved to be the opening everyone was looking for. and just a year, according to the government, food stamp participation jumped 10% in ashe county and that was just the beginning. folks here eventually became open to other ...

That has two mills and can't run are one because it can't get enough help. >> reporter: even these days? >> even these days. restaurants are having problems in town getting waitresses, people are just becoming used to getting something for nothing. >> reporter: one brief message to deliver to president obama, what would you say? >> i would say for those of us who still possess that mountain pride, leave us alone. >> our look at the expanding welfare state continues thursday. we ride with government cops on a food stamp fraud sting. it has been a long day in egypt, we're going to tell you abo...