Crowds. See My Day at the 2008 Remote Area Medical (RAM) Click on any picture above for a larger image.

Remote Area Medical Project update for 2003

Pictured above is Wise Airport, the recipient, along with an adjacent nearly empty industrial park, of millions in prok-barrel tax dollars. The result is more poverty for working people as shown by the record turnout at RAM for 2003. For some reason nobody will tell me, the yearly Rural Area Medical has been moved to Wise Fairgrounds in the Hurricane section of the county. It seems public officials are embarrased by all of this while handing out over $1 million to buy equipment for the airport so rich people can land private planes in the rain.

My wife and I recently drove through the airport to see if the reports of "nothing there" was really true. In the middle of a Saturday, we saw no planes landing, I saw nobody at the airport at all, but did see the Sykes call center (their only success at industrial recruitment) half-empty parking lot, and some people playing golf, and cows grazing in a pasture. No wonder public officials are so embarrassed!

By 2015 Sykes has fired many of its workers and is down to perhaps 100.

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• RAM Project update 2003
• RAM Project Page
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