America's strength is that its people are adaptable. When circumstances change, we adjust. That's because we are a nation of pioneers —- resilient people who fought for independence, formed a nation and pressed on to new frontiers. We met adversity, reoriented our lives and ultimately prevailed.

That resourcefulness, the adaptability to adjust and move on, is with us still. Drive around Georgia, and you can find it everywhere.

—- Jim Wooten, for the editorial board (jwooten@ajc.com)

Kenneth and Shawn Hollis, Americus

On this Independence Day, Shawn Hollis' son, Mikel Hollar, serves his country and the cause of freedom in Iraq. She is proud of him. "He wanted to serve his country and serve it well," volunteering for the Army, she said.

Her husband, Kenneth, did his stint, too, leaving a job he'd held for 10 years to serve four years in the Army. When that stint was up, he came back to the same factory, making auto bumpers.

Kenneth and Shawn met at the plant, which at one point had employed 1,300 people, Kenneth said. When it closed last year, it was down to 183. Both remember, with fondness, the glory days of the automobile industry.

"They were at work, making big money," she said. "They had Ford, GM, Chrysler, and they had good benefits and paid bonuses. We are talking about $500-$600 a week in pay, which is very good for Americus. As the car industry got worse, and the economy got worse, there were more and more layoffs. "

After the company was sold, the raises stopped, including the yearly cost-of-living allowances. The work environment deterioriated. Insurance costs rose. Workers turned to unionization. Within a year, the plant closed.

Shawn and two co-workers, Alice Muff and Doris Tyson, decided to act. They contacted public officials, insisting that their jobs were lost to overseas competition. All 183 workers were ruled eligible for extended training and unemployment benefits. They had no severance packages or affordable health insurance options.

"People were getting depressed; they thought they were too old and too unqualified for any other job. They thought they were qualified to make bumpers and nothing else. We had quite a few people with GEDs, and all they had done is make bumpers all their lives."

For Shawn and Kenneth, the option was more schooling at South Georgia Technical College. Next spring, she'll get an associate's degree in accounting. Last month, Kenneth finished in automotive body repair.

"For the majority of us, the closing has become a positive," said Shawn. They either got better jobs or jobs that were not as bad on their health. ... Many people didn't even really know that they had a brain and that they could really go to school."

Keith Scott, Byron

At this year's Central Georgia Technical College graduation, Scott was the featured speaker. He told a story:

On a Monday night in October 2003, he took the night off and told his girlfriend that she should get really dressed up because he was taking her out to dinner.

"I go home and put on a suit and tie, and we went out to a very nice, way-over-my-head restaurant. We were very much out of our league." But the occasion was special. He proposed. She said yes.

The next morning, his father picked up the Macon newspaper and called him with the headline. "I found out what I had missed at work Monday night." The Brown & Williamson plant, where he had worked for a decade, was closing its doors.

Today, he is the owner of Keith's Kustom Lawncare, "a growing business with much potential," operating from a business plan developed while attending CGTC. "I am going wide-open right now," he said, recently hiring his first employee. The key to succeeding, he said, is a supportive wife, Shelia, and his religious faith.

When he heard the headline read to him over the phone a few years back, "I was scared and shocked and mad and I had tons of emotions," Scott recalls. "I didn't know what to do initially. ... I thought I could go back to school to buy some time, maybe taking small engine repair.

"But the Lord works in mysterious ways. ... I wouldn't know what it was like not to have opportunity. We just take that for granted and assume that everybody in the would can have that —- but we do have opportunities here that people in some other countries don't."

Bobby Casey, Manchester

For 30 years, Casey worked as a machinist in a Manchester factory that made hairbrushes, combs, bobby pins and other hair-care accessories for women. He worked in a cramped space with no windows. Unless the thunder boomed or the power went out, " I didn't know what the weather was outside."

In January 2006, the weather was frigid. Newell Rubbermaid, the corporation that owned Goody Products, announced that it would restructure, putting 200 Manchester workers out of a job. At 51, Bobby Casey would start over.

"I guess I was ready for a change, because I was. It was scary, though. But I am a Christian man, and I knew that if the good Lord closed a door, he would open a window. I enjoy what I am doing now. I am out and about. I like that. It was a big change from the tool room."

Even before graduating from Flint River Technical College in Thomaston, Casey was hired by the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation as a trades craftsman, a job that allows him to work throughout the facilities. "I love the freedom of it," he said.

Roy Braswell, Sandersville

In April of 2005, the rumors became a 60-day notice. Lapp Insulator Co. closed its Sandersville plant, where Braswell had worked for 38 years. He started over at the age of 57.

And he's glad he did: "The job I have now, I hate to say it, but if they had closed down earlier and I could get the job I've got now, I would be a lot better off. ... The job I have now pays better than the one I had."

He was hired by Trojan Battery Co. as a maintenance technician months before graduating, with honors, from Sandersville Technical College.

When the plant closed and he and other workers had a chance to go back to school, "I didn't know what to expect. ... I wasn't sure that I wanted to go back to school. You're old, and you can't remember and stuff. I just didn't want to fail when I went back. [At Sandersville Technical College] they worked with you. You had good instructors. They were wonderful.

"I always had the feeling that I could find a job. ... [But] all the while I was in technical school, I never thought I would be working in the field I was studying. ... I went on four or five interviews. I knew they were probably looking for somebody younger.

"You're 57, 58 years old, starting over, very few people are going to give you a chance. But Trojan gave me an opportunity."

Michael Staines, Cartersville

Staines had spent half his life working for a company he never thought would close. In May 2005, it did.

"I really didn't know what I would do," said Staines, who worked for 19 years at the Cartersville plant that manufactured plastic bags for Glad.

For Staines, it was a family jolt. A sister and brother also worked at Glad. Staines decided to train for a future as a respiratory therapist at Coosa Valley Technical College in Rome, 25 miles away. Two months before graduating, he landed a job at Floyd Medical Center in Rome.

"It's like night and day. I'm taking care of people, which I enjoy, rather than working on a machine in more or less a dead-end job."

Both his sister, Lynne Maulden of Cartersville, and his brother, Keith Lance of Cartersville, went to school, too, at North Metro Technical College in Acworth. She trained as a licensed practical nurse, and he studied to become an industrial electrician. Both found work.

"It's been kind of a blessing to me," said Staines.

Independence Day is a celebration of the American spirit —- the spirit of a people who stare down adversity and who, like the phoenix that is Atlanta's symbol, rise from the ashes to start anew. Through Revolution, Civil War, Depression and a world in recurring chaos, the American people endure. That spirit is the gift of the Founding Fathers.

 CHRIS VAN ES / NewsArt