Out of Poverty

Diane Sawyer did an indepth piece for 20/20 to air Friday night about Children of the Appalachians (Kentucky).  It will be hard for viewers to believe that anyone in the US could still be living this way.  It is hard for me to believe.  However, I have seen some places right here in my county that knocked me down, so to speak.  A carboard shack, trailers with no heat, families piled up in one house and on welfare.  Usually everyone in the family smokes, eats junk food, and drinks soft drinks by the liters.  I know that is not fair to all who live like that but, in general, it is true.  The poor kids come to school starving for good food.  We have a high poverty level right here in South Central Kentucky.  We also have a lot of "bad backs" and "disabilities" that run in families.

If my children were having to live in poverty, I would make it the best situation I could.  I certainly wouldn't be buying cigarettes, playing bingo, or renting movies. I have seen the parents of these neglected children with their pull tabs and cigarettes. One pack of cigarettes would buy a big sack of beans and a gallon of milk.

I am interested in what Diane will show us, but I have been there so I know how mountain people live.  My brother was a trooper in an Eastern Kentucky town and I saw houses with no doors, filth, and indifference.  Sometimes we have to wonder why they don't leave for the sake of their children?  They just don't know where to go.  I will be watching but I know already that whatever people once thought of Kentuckians will be enhanced even more after this program.  What others don't see are those who don't live like that.  Who go to school and find a way out. Getting out of the hole of poverty is a slow climb but after all these years, wouldn't you think we'd be rid of it?