Sampson County isn’t perfect, but it is not the “dirtied” up, dried up, economically depressed area that those with no vested interest in our community would have you believe. And that’s if, in fact, you dare to even believe anything these people have posted on hyped up, self-serving, paid content circulating on social media lately.
Yet it is disconcerting — and infuriating — to see those who do nothing to contribute to the well-being of our community bash it just to rile up the social media trollers and to gain likes and posts on content that is not designed to lift communities up but rather tear them down.
It’s disingenious, at best, to be a Johnny-come-lately savior of Sampson County by swooping in and professing to pull a curtain back to reveal issues that most everyone in Sampson County has read about, experienced firsthand or has witnessed at meetings of county commissioners, town boards and City Council.
Many of those people — elected officials, government staffers and community residents — are the same ones who also step up to try to make a difference in the areas where issues are discovered. They don’t just mouth off about the problems, they find real solutions, and they roll up their shirtsleeves and go to work to actually make a positive difference for the areas in which they live.
They don’t do it to earn money, fame, fortune or a social media pat on the back; they do it to serve and to make this community we love better.
While we may not always agree with the process others take, we know that even those on governing boards or community advisory panels we have disagreed with have Sampson County’s best interest at heart and aren’t ignorant to the problems that exist nor what it will actually take to provide sustainable solutions.
Take for example, recent online scoffing at the town of Roseboro, a small municipality that we have repeatedly praised for the way town officials and local business owners have stepped in — and up — to prevent a town bypassed by a major highway from being overlooked and under appreciated.
We have reported on most, if not all, the tough issues the town and outlying areas have faced, but we’ve also talked about all the good things actually happening, including work to get sidewalks repaired, the growing Bloomfest, happening this weekend, the concert series and the new stage installed downtown, as well as ongoing efforts by the Western Sampson group to find a bank willing to locate in the small town.
Those efforts aren’t quick fixes; instead they are part of slow and steady growth initiated by leaders who have historic knowledge of the problems, compassionate hearts for its people and a desire to turn negatives into positives. That is true in Roseboro and across our great county, a far different scenario than those who want to use negatives as a means to hurt not help Sampson, individuals whose only goals seem to be lining their own pockets by capitalizing on the negative and, at the same time, inflate their own egos.
We urge you not to be fooled by a magician’s slight of hand. And don’t be drawn into a web of purported statistics slung at you like spaghetti to a wall. Numbers without context don’t tell the entire story nor paint an accurate picture of Sampson County, anymore than AI-generated images show the true heart of our wonderful county.
Like any rural community, we wish literacy rates were higher, social services rolls were lower and no child went home hungry, but the realities, no matter where you live, show us a far different picture.
But it’s not the whole picture. That only can be seen when you paint in the men and women who visit our schools and read to youngsters; the people who reach deep into their pockets to contribute to our United Way agencies; the individuals who work on food distribution lines; the business men and women who take time from work to pack bag after bag of non-perishable food items for hundreds of children across Sampson County; the thousands and thousands of dollars contributed by our community members to support fund-raisings for cancer survivors, fire victims, student scholarships and countless other worthwhile projects all designed to stamp out many of the problems small-minded people only want to point out not resolve.
It is each of those efforts, and so many more, that make us Sampson proud. We hope you are too.