A Letter From the Publisher: May 11, 1987

Last summer passed painfully for Margie Brauer, 60, and her husband Ernie, 69, one of the thousands of American farm families who have been battling hard times. Mired in debt, the Norlina, N.C., couple declared bankruptcy in April 1986. Then, facing foreclosure on the 228-acre farm that she and Ernie had worked for 40 years, Margie wrote an eloquent letter to a court-appointed trustee, expressing the hope that she and her husband might somehow retain their self-respect as they went through the agonizing process of giving up their home and land. TIME reprinted that letter (NATION, Sept. 8), prompting an outpouring...

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