<< Back 10/9/02 The idyllic mountains are changing fast By Jonathan Estes On Sept. 12, Western Carolina University junior Marques Parks was shot at by a passing motorist while driving his Mercedes convertible. Soon after the attack, the African-American student withdrew from classes and returned to his home in Duluth, Ga. The blast grazed his neck, but only because he ducked at the last second. Western lost a good student, but the college is probably lucky that’s all it lost. Marques had to flee the calm Appalachians because of crime and go back to the greater Atlanta metro area. Aren’t they the ones known for violent crime? Aren’t we the ones who leave our doors unlocked at night? I pride myself on that — being able to leave the door unlocked. I snicker at the man that sets his car alarm just to run into the gas station. But as this region grows in size and diversity, perhaps I won’t feel so proud about such things as I do foolish. Sylva, by almost all descriptions, is a quiet town of local people. Just as WCU has recruited more and more from the eastern areas of the state, Sylva and the rest of the mountain region have attracted more and more non-Appalachian folk. With such a large influx of people, the demographics here are mutating, and that has led to tension in every walk of life here, even to outbursts such as this shooting. People are people. We may not have the same values, no matter how you define ‘we’ and ‘they.’ There may be bitterness between us, whatever it means to be ‘us.’ But conflict should never come down to a matter of demographics. This region carries different appeals for different people. Some grew up here. Some came for work, or education, or real estate, or simple beauty. Our goals conflict with their goals. ‘Theirs’ with ‘ours.’ People form communities according to their similar interests. With rare exceptions, this has always been the case. Just as commonly, people will toss others they see into some category according to their apparent characteristics. The locals. The students. The city-folk. Wherever they are from, though, and whatever they do, they are here for the mountains, and for that reason they are a part of this place for a while. Marques Parks came here for an education, he said in a recent interview. He came here for Western’s Business Department, of which he had a glowing opinion. But ultimately, he said, “I picked the school because it was beautiful. Sylva was a small town, coming from Atlanta, but I adjusted because I liked it.” Parks spent two years at WCU. He enjoyed the place. He enjoyed the mountains. He enjoyed the people. Now he is back at home waiting out the semester so he can transfer to the University of Georgia next semester. One can only speculate as to the assailant’s motives. Maybe it was race. Maybe it was color. Parks was an African-American student from an urban community who drove a Mercedes convertible around town. The man charged in the attack was white. Should a whole community be indicted for one man’s crime? Of course not. Some will, though, by blaming it on them. Or blaming it on us. “Well of course it was some redneck who shot at him!” “You ask me, boy got what he deserved, getting uppity like he did.” Blame it on all of us. Blame it on our lack of ability to get along with each other. Is it too idealistic to believe we can all just get along? Then I’m an idealist. Put me in with that crowd. We can’t continue to believe that snuggled up here in the mountains is still a Mayberry-type community. The region has changed, as has the school. Guns and violence are here, just as they are in all other parts of the country. And as we continue to grow bigger and more diverse, so too will our problems. What needs to grow with it is temperance and the ability to govern ourselves and our communities no matter what we think of others. Marques Parks seems like a good guy. He was a good student. Now he’ll just be a good student somewhere else, in a bigger city, because a small mountain town is just too dangerous for him. The irony of that is almost too much to comprehend. (John Estes is a student at Western Carolina University and an intern at The Smoky Mountain News. He can be reached at sheqelim@yahoo.com)