When I was a kid, you stuck a thumb out by the side of the road, you got a ride. Or if you had a car, you gave a ride. If someone was hungry, you fed him. You had community. You know what’s undercut all that? Big government.
-- Mike Schaff (chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: Schaff explains the importance and ideals of community in rural Louisiana, and offers a window into the nostalgia Louisianans have toward the past. As the book explains, they view "big government" as eroding their way of life, and as such resist it even though their state is one of the poorest in the country.

I’M THE ONE WHO DUMPED IT IN THE BAYOU”
-- Lee Sherman (chapter 2 paragraph 1)

Importance: This is the message Lee Sherman wrote on a sign when he confronted his former employers, Pittsburgh Plate Glass, about the deterioration of water standards in Louisiana. Sherman, who began work with PPG in the 1960s, said...