Handwriting a Thing of the Past?

The State of North Carolina has announced that it will no longer teach cursive writing to its students.  Most people are appalled, and so am I.  The printing of letters and the alphabet will of course still be taught, but the school system is leaving it in the hands of parents to teach a child how to write his or her name in cursive rather than printing it.  Questions and red flags immediately come to mind, first of which is how can someone sign a document, versus printing their name on it?  How is one supposed to take notes at a meeting or in a class - print everything?  How can a person fill out and sign a check or estate documents?  Are we now so dependent on computers/laptops/smart phones that we will have them with us 24/7?
Beyond those simple questions lay more profound ones.  People are depending more and more on computers for "communication" but are relying only on the written word, not tone of voice, inflection, facial expressions, and body language.  A non-personal screen is trumping personal contact and simply destroying the art of conversation. 
E-mails, in the personal world, are not printed out and saved "for posterity."  Letters received via the mail service used to be anticipated and cherished, and those are vanishing from the face of the earth and creating a void in the history of people who may one day be a person who changes the world or who invents something that makes life better.  Preservation of history is slipping right through the keyboard, and not teaching cursive is hastening its death.
Technology and use of word processing is also destroying the need to spell words correctly.  With spell-check, why bother trying to spell something correctly?  The computer will fix it for you!  And texting has birthed a language of its own in abbreviations and misspellings that are enough to drive an English teacher crazy!  I have a problem with texting because I find it difficult to even use the letter "r" for the word "are."  Guess I'm old school!  So if I do text, which is rare, it takes me a while because I spell everything out and use correct punctuation.  Spelling is now creative rather than going by the rules people have obeyed for ages.  Where is the sense in that?
Cursive writing is being sacrificed for more time in front of computers for our students in order for them to learn to use the word processing programs.  The future for these children looks rather grim to me.  Even now, young people are graduating from college, yet they cannot write complete sentences; they cannot think deeply; they do not think beyond themselves to the needs of others (not all, but most); they live for the moment and do not save for the future; they cannot budget or balance a checkbook; they cannot do laundry or cook for themselves - but they have a college degree! 
I hope the uproar created by the announcement that cursive will no longer be taught brings it back.  It's part of life and always will be needed.  Much will be lost if it goes by the wayside.