You may look up to St Francis and the hermits of long ago, some of whom lived atop huge pillars, many of whom lived in caves and were filthy, flea riddled, and depended upon others for their sustenance, but hardly anyone, then or now, wants to live like that. And in this day and age, since you are so miserable with your plight, that that is your own vision of perfection, I suggest that you follow your heart and try it out. As for it being the only good solution for everyone else, well, it isn't and that's that!
Not everyone, during the Black Plague, left every city it hit and went to live in the country. And yes,some of them survived.
In 1918, nobody left the cities, to escape the Spanish or Swine flu!
And during Elizabeth the first reign people were NOT running away to the country, to escape the many small pox epidemics.
And in a more recent time, people in America were not, not, NOT leaving cities in droves, to escape from wave after wave of polio surges.
A few people left lower Manhattan, after 9/11, but where did they go? Most went to the suburbs; either of N.J. or Conn., or even N.Y., though some did move farther away.
The Amish do NOT live in nowheresville. They live in clusters and rather densely populated villages.
Dailykos
by CindySheehan [Subscribe]
Wed Aug 10th, 2005 at 22:37:45 PDT
Today started at 4am when the rain started blowing into my tent and my head and my feet started getting soaked and the thunder and lightening came over my tent. I was really frightened for my life, so I abandoned ship and went into Crawford.
CindySheehan's diary :: ::
By the time we made our way through the floods and got into Crawford, I had a fever, sore throat, and bad headache. So I was made to rest and not have any interviews until noon.
We had a little bit of trouble with locals today. We are beginning to feel a little unwelcome here. One lady almost ran over a film crew that was filming a commercial today. She screamed at us that the neighbors are really mad at ...so we moved down the road to our closest neighbor who is very sweet. Her husband is a medic who just got home from Iraq.
Again, I did tons of interviews. It looks like I will be on the cover of People Magazine. Time Magazine, Vanity Fair and Oprah's magazine will be interviewing me also.
It was great having the other GSFP and MFSO there to help me with interviews and greeting all of the hundreds of people who came out from all over the country to be with us today. We were hassled by the Sheriff because there were too many cars out there. Our little Bush Town has grown to full capacity. The town Sheriff said we can put up tents and RV's in the town stadium. There are wall to wall sleeping bags here at the Peace House.
Due to the generosity of you all, the Crawford Peace House has gotten over 30,000 dollars and GSFP has gotten a lot of donations too. I got about 2 and a half dozen bouquets of flowers from all over everywhere. I am so amazed and overwhelmed by the support and love we are getting from everywhere.
As for Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Matt Drudge, etc...nothing you can say can hurt me or make me stop what we are doing. We are working for peace with justice. We are using peaceful means and the truth to do it. I guess the truth frightens people. It frightens them so much, they have to resort to telling lies to rebut my arguments. They are despicable human beings and not even worth our concern. Bill O'Reilly had the nerve to invite me on his show again today. But, Dolores Kesterson, another Gold Star Families for Peace member who also had a terrible experience with meeting George and she kicked his butt.
Tonight we are still on arrest alert...so we shall see.
Peace soon.
But it would be easier for them to spread out a little more, than for modern city dwellers.
Most couldn't leave the city, as they were too poor to have any other place to live.
It was mostly the wealthier inhabitants, who fled to their country estates.