Could Glenn Beck revive city’s textile industry?

(By Tom Joyce, Mount Airy News) - Glenn Beck is loved by some and despised by others, but Mount Airy residents including Mayor Deborah Cochran are hoping the outspoken conservative television and radio host can help rejuvenate this city’s textile economy.

The basis for that optimism is a recently announced campaign by Beck to find some community in America where a new “1791 clothing line” can be manufactured. Theoretically, this would put displaced textile employees back to work while allowing the profits to help persons in need through a “Mercury One” charity project planned by Beck.

“I believe that out there somewhere is a town searching for a second chance — a mill waiting to be reopened,” Beck says in a video for the effort which is accessible from his Web site.

Upon watching the video, Mayor Cochran immediately saw an opportunity for Mount Airy, whose abundance of empty manufacturing buildings are a mute testament to a series of industrial closings over the past decade.