Pride and prejudice.

• Author: Kinney, David
• Position: Up Front - A discussion of trends in Eastern North Carolina - Column

I began writing this column the last day of last year about as far east as you can get in Eastern North Carolina, two houses up the beach from where the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stood its first 129 years. Of course, Dare County--at least that part of it on the Outer Banks--bears scant resemblance to the places Senior Editor Ed Martin writes about in this month's cover story. By some measures, Dare is one of the fastest-growing counties in the state.

That is one of the difficulties of writing about a region, a huge hunk of a massive state that, in many ways, mirrors not only its scenic diversity but the contrasts in economic vitality and opportunity found across its length and breadth. Kitty Hawk is not Kinston. Wilmington is not Williamston. Nor is sand tickled by tidewater the magic touch. As Ed's story notes, Greenville, capital of the East's heartland, has high-tech sprouting in fields where tobacco once grew, a world apart from much of what surrounds it.

That all of Eastern North Carolina is too often tarred by the same brush irritates many of its people, especially boosters and economic developers of those places that do not match the mold that many, especially their fellow Tar Heels from the "prosperous" Piedmont, try to fit them. But it is a cross they and - after reading this month's cover story, I'm convinced--all North Carolinians, no matter where they live, must bear until the problems that plague so much of the region are dealt with. And deal with them we must, if for no better or higher reason than our own self-interest.

How best to do this...