City-Data.com reports that 25 % of the people living in zip 30742, live below the poverty level. That's a lot of people; probably about 2500 of our neighbors are struggling to eat, provide shelter, utilities, clothing etc.
It almost certainly means that they cannot afford a dentist nor get proper medical care.
In several ways that means that all of our general welfare is challenged. It puts pressure on the local hospital to provide services and still get paid. It means that our community is abundant in low cost stores such as Dollar General, Family Dollar and a host of second hand bargain stores. It means that when we go to Burger King or McDonald's to get a coffee or an ice cream we must see our neighbors in the rag tag clothes and shoes.
At the school level teachers are hard pressed to get a true learning experience from the poorest of the children and thus are not able to push the other students to a higher level of achievement.
To look around in a casual way we might think of Fort Oglethorpe as a very progressive city but there is another city just below the surface.
