Recently moving away from my childhood home to the flatlands of the north central region of Kentucky exposed me to a view of my native region that I had been mostly ignorant of. The scholars, popular culture, and the federal government consider the place of my birth Appalachia. Therefore, I had to develop a category for understanding Appalachia as a region and not just a town, university, or mountain range. I had to develop a category for understanding my region of southwestern Virginia as Appalachia. Most importantly, I had to develop a category for understanding myself as Appalachian and not just, generically speaking, an American.
I grew up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. If I was ever asked where I was from, I would respond by naming the town or community and, if necessary, the state that town or community was located in. One of the definitions of Appalachia I had tucked away in my mind was that of a small coal-mining town in Wise County, Virginia. Or, another definition I held was that of a university I had heard of in the mountains of western North Carolina called Appalachian State University. Also, every now and then I would hear mention of the Appalachian Mountains. Yet, these uses of Appalachia were the extent of the meanings of Appalachia in which I had available categories. I had a category for Appalachia as a town. I had a category for Appalachia as a place of higher education. And I had a category for Appalachia as a mountain range stretching across the eastern United States. But I did not have a category for Appalachia as a particular region within this country.
Recently moving away from my childhood home to the flatlands of the north central region of Kentucky exposed me to a view of my native region that I had been mostly ignorant of. The scholars, popular culture, and the federal government consider the place of my birth Appalachia. Therefore, I had to develop a category for understanding Appalachia as a region and not just a town, university, or mountain range. I had to develop a category for understanding my region of southwestern Virginia as Appalachia. Most importantly, I had to develop a category for understanding myself as Appalachian and not just, generically speaking, an American.
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"In an effort to encourage graduates to consider jobs in rural areas that are in desperate need of lawyers, the University of North Dakota School of Law has created a one-year pilot program to give students an idea of what it's like to live and work in a rural area, Ashley Marquis reports for Dakota Student, the college's student-run newspaper. If continued, ‘The program would offer three internships for law students to go to smaller communities in the state that have less than 15,000 people. The interns would work closely with a judge throughout the summer and into the school year." " Standing in front of his congregation at a small Pentecostal church in Kentucky, Pastor Jamie Coots held the long, sleek body of a poisonous snake, practicing what he considers a holy Christian sacrament, but what others are calling a threat to public safety. In tiny churches tucked away in rural Appalachia, "snake handling," which began generations ago as an expression of faith, is turning into a fight over religious freedom. " " More than 300,000 people died from drug poisoning in the U.S. between 1999 and 2009. That first year, opioid analgesics—drugs like methadone, oxycodone, and hydrocodone—were responsible for 21 percent of drug poisoning deaths. By 2009, that number had increased to 42 percent, or 15,597 dead, making prescription painkillers the leading cause of drug-poisoning deaths. We've known for some time which types of U.S. communities have been hit the hardest by this country's prescription pill crisis (rural ones) and which states have the biggest problems (those on the Gulf Coast, in Appalachia, and the southwest). But a new series of maps published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that the problem has spread, and now reaches virtually every part of the country." "If you think this president makes unprecedented claims about what government can do for people, you’re forgetting Lyndon Johnson. Fifty years ago today, LBJ was sworn in as president after an assassin’s bullet took the life of John Kennedy. Within five months, the new president had launched a well-publicized presidential tour of Appalachia. On the way he stopped by the home of unemployed coal miner Tommy Fletcher in the hills of East Kentucky — transforming the Fletcher front porch into an iconic image of the War on Poverty." "Apart from government aid, many private charities send money, volunteers, free medical care and truckloads of donated food and clothes to Martin County each year.Their names blur together: the Appalachia Service Project, Appalachia Reach Out, the Christian Appalachian Project and the Rockin' Appalachian Moms Project, to name but a few....Writing in 1967, Kentucky journalist John Fetterman observed: 'Appalachia is Mecca for those driven — both by demons and by self-guilt — to do unto somebody, somehow. So for decades, Appalachia has been done unto.' "The president of the United States dropped from the sky in 1964 to shake the hand of unemployed coal miner Tommy Fletcher and declare war on poverty. A half-century later, viewed from where it began, the war has produced a depressing stalemate. President Lyndon B. Johnson toured Martin County as he prepared to ask Congress for a $1 billion aid package for Appalachia, a place thrust into an unflattering spotlight by Harry Caudill's book Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area. Johnson flew in by helicopter and led the White House press corps through the area's rugged countryside so everyone could see how badly the Appalachian people lived." The Weekly Links is intended to bring awareness of news stories related to the Appalachian region. An article's inclusion in this list does not imply agreement with or approval of all things written within.
Harlan County, USA is a documentary about labor struggles in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky. Although predominantly slanted in the direction of the union supporters and organizers, the film is still well worth a watch. According to editorial reviews, Harlan County, USA, "documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike." One source writes of the film and its director/producer: At the age of 26, independent filmmaker Barbara Kopple raised $9,000 for her first documentary feature and headed to Harlan County, Kentucky, an economically depressed area in the Appalachian Mountains where coal mining was the principal industry. She was intent on filming the then-current strike by the miners of Harlan County, Kentucky against their management, the Duke Power Company, but first, she had to gain the trust of the miners. After living among the local residents and getting to know them, Kopple eventually overcame their suspicions and began to chronicle the miners' struggle to join a union - the United Mine Workers - against the, often violent, resistance of the Duke Power Co. The result - Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) - was an astonishingly intimate and passionate work that won the Oscar® for Best Documentary and recently was selected as one of twenty-five films by the Library of Congress to be placed on its Film Registry. You can purchase the documentary here. I cannot fully recall, but there may be some language used that is not suitable for all ages or all people. Enjoy! "Black and White" is a song by a group I have come across fairly recently called Cherryholmes. However, I am unsure of whether or not the group still remains together. The song is written from the perspective of one who has committed murder and has been sentenced to life without parole. Amazingly, a life sentence in prison leads the murderer not to despair but to this joyful confession: "I’d rather be in this dark cell/Than to be free and die and go to hell/God bless the day of my new birth/I don’t have to pay the price that I deserve." "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance," says Jesus in Luke's Gospel (5:32 ESV). Even murderers can find salvation when they repent and believe in the One who was himself murdered, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. Oh, let me tell my story friend
That you might learn to stay away from sin I took a life not mine to take Imprisoned for this haunting dread mistake My heart was harder than my soul They sentenced me to life without parole Where no one cares, we’re all the same And I must wear this number for my name Now life to me is black and white I’ll wear these stripes until the day I die But this ball and chain around my leg Won’t drag me down, won’t drag me down When I am dead My mother prayed so hard for me She did her time down on bended knees But I was young and I had no fear Her pleading voice still echoes in my ear Don’t let the beauty blind your eyes This world is filled with discolored lies For greener fields don’t sell your soul You’ll think you’re rich with a pocket of fool’s gold I’d rather be in this dark cell Than to be free and die and go to hell God bless the day of my new birth I don’t have to pay the price that I deserve And when I’m dead and take my flight I’ll leave behind this world of black and white "Agriculture Commissioner James Comer is challenging leaders in eastern Kentucky to open their eyes to the state’s declining coal economy. Comer is Kentucky’s only Republican statewide constitutional officer. He has led the effort to make industrial hemp legal in the state and is also considered a possible candidate for governor in 2015." "U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at this month’s Rural Futures Conference that now is the time 'to re-emphasize, re-educate and remind America of the importance of rural America' because 'rural America is ready to capitalize on economic and societal changes.' We feel this way about Appalachia." " U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W.Va.) Thursday announced Wyoming County will be included in the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) enabling the County to receive additional federal resources to further the coordination and development of drug control efforts." "The Museum of Appalachia is the best kind of museum. It hums with warmth and humor. Everything has a story. It's the right size. It allows wandering. And it surprises. A glass eye! A hog kettle! And little handmade toys that will touch your heart. With a collection amassed by one man, John Rice Irwin, it opened as a museum in 1969 and is now a nonprofit and affiliated with the prestigious Smithsonian Institution." "A pastor told a packed courtroom Friday that his handling of snakes as a part of a church service is guaranteed under federal law governing freedom of religion. Andrew Hamblin, pastor of Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, entered a not guilty plea on Friday to possessing 50 venomous snakes during an arraignment in Campbell County General Sessions Court." "The Tennessee Valley Authority, one of the nation’s five biggest users of coal for electricity generation, said Thursday it would close down eight coal-fired power units with 3,300 megawatts of capacity. The decision was prompted by a combination of environmental requirements, the age of the plants, competition from natural gas and declining electricity consumption in the TVA’s service area. TVA executives said at an open meeting of the agency’s board of directors in Oxford, Miss., that they aim to reduce coal to 20 percent of total generating capacity, about half of what it was in 2010." "King Coal may soon be dethroned as the Tennessee Valley Authority's primary source of power. After stoking most of its power plants with coal for more than a half-century, TVA appears ready to shut down many of its oldest and least-efficient coal plants in the face of stricter environmental rules and less demand for energy. The federal utility has shut down a half-dozen units in the past two years and is studying options to shutter at least a dozen more. TVA expects to generate more power from nuclear plants than coal within the next three years." The Weekly Links is intended to bring awareness of news stories related to the Appalachian region. An article's inclusion in this list does not imply agreement with or approval of all things written within.
Today's mountain music comes from A.P. and the Carter Family singing "The Cyclone of Rye Cove," which was recorded shortly after the 1929 tornado that struck Rye Cove School. The Encyclopedia Virginia has this article of the tragic and deadly event: The Rye Cove Cyclone is the deadliest tornado in Virginia history. Part of an unusual outbreak of tornadoes across the eastern United States on May 2, 1929, it hit the Rye Cove School in the Appalachian highlands of Scott County in the southwestern part of the state, killing twelve students and one teacher and injuring fifty-four. Tornadoes also hit two school houses in Bath County later that day, but both schools had already dismissed students for the day. Scott County native A. P. Carter, of the singing group the Carter Family, volunteered to help in the wake of the tragedy, and the group recorded "The Cyclone of Rye Cove" later that year. The school's 1929–1930 term was canceled, and a memorial school dedicated in 1930. Along with the information above from the Encyclopedia Virginia, an article from the Kingsport Times can be found here, along with an article from the Scott County Herald here. Photographs capturing the aftermath of the tornado can be seen here. Oh listen today in a story I tell
In Sadness and tear dimmed eyes Of a dreadful cyclone that came this way And blew our schoolhouse away Rye Cove (Rye Cove) Rye Cove (Rye Cove) The place of my childhood and home Where in life's early morn I once loved to roam But now it's so silent and lone When the cyclone appeared it darkened the air Yet the lightning flashed over the sky And the children all cried "don't take us away And spare us to go back home" There were mothers so dear and fathers the same That came to this horrible scene Searching and crying each found their own child Dying on a pillow of stone Oh give us a home far beyond the blue skies Where storms and cyclones are unknown And there by life's strand we'll clasp this glad hand Their children in a heavenly home "Os Deaver and his nephew Jimmie Osbourne McElroy were ordinary men who ran an ordinary store in an ordinary Appalachian community in the late 1800s. We know about their lives today because each day, Deaver — with occasion help from McElroy — made an entry in a store diary, recording weather conditions, community events, births, deaths, accidents, crimes, visitors and other items of interest.Individually, the entries reflect the minutia of daily rural life. Taken together, however, they make an incredibly accurate, sometimes surprising, and historically significant record of life in western North Carolina from 1885-96." "Originally from southern West Virginia, Eller has spent more than 40 years writing and teaching about the Appalachian region. A descendent of eight generations of families from Appalachia, he served for 15 years as the director of the UK Appalachian Center where he coordinated research and service programs on a wide range of Appalachian policy issues including education, health care, economic development, civic leadership and the environment." "Growing up, we didn’t have much in a household made up of my mom, my brother and me. Even though we lived in the city, in Los Angeles, we always had a small garden in the back where I helped pick peas, string beans, tomatoes and green onions. No matter how small the size of the garden, it was a family event planting, growing and harvesting on our own. My brother and I were city kids that learned to appreciate fresh food. To this day, I rarely eat junk food because it simply wasn’t a part of my upbringing. More than 50 million Americans live in food insecure households. When I founded Grow Appalachia in partnership with Berea College in 2009, I was hoping to address to the problem of hunger in America but realized that the issue wasn’t simply a lack of food." "Central Appalachia is certainly not the only region of the country that has ever faced an economic transition of the size and scale of the one we’re facing now. Almost all rural regions of the country are trying to figure out their best path forward. The lucky thing for Appalachia is, we can take a look at what other regions are doing, and have already done, and learn from their successes and failures." "Successful businesses can now lend money to newer, smaller enterprises that want to either launch or expand, thanks to a statewide lending program called an angel investment fund. The West Virginia Angel Investment Network started on a small scale four years ago, but Vice Chairman Tom Heywood tells media outlets that it now has some $3 million and is ready to consider funding projects statewide. The network provides administrative support to West Virginia Growth Investment LLC, which deals directly with people seeking loans." "James River Coal Co idled four more mines in Central Appalachia and temporarily laid off about 200 employees as the company looks to shore up its precarious cash position amid weak coal prices." "There are a lot of reasons why America’s Appalachian coal country is suffering. Some point to the rise of domestic shale gas that is displacing coal at power plants, in what’s called coal-to-gas switching. But coal-to-coal switching is also hurting Appalachian coal country. It’s not just that power plants are switching away from coal completely, it’s that power plant operators have been sourcing their coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin instead of Appalachia for years." "Sen. Rand Paul sees a 'depression' in Appalachia's coal country, and he says there's one man to blame for it: President Obama. The Kentucky Republican isn't alone in his fury over Obama's treatment of the coal industry. A bipartisan bloc of elected officials from across the region shares his views, including two influential West Virginia Democrats: Sen. Joe Manchin and Rep. Nick Rahall. The critics argue that by tightening rules on mountaintop-removal coal mining and imposing greenhouse-gas emission limits on coal-fired power plants, Obama and his allies are regulating the industry out of business—and putting legions of coal miners out of work. The president's regulatory push has left Obama and his party deeply unpopular across the region." "The Central Appalachian region has been the heart of coal country for as long as anyone can remember. But in recent years, Kentucky and West Virginia's coal industries have been facing a painful decline — and that decline is starting to get widespread attention." "Red states and blue states? Flyover country and the coasts? How simplistic. Colin Woodard, a reporter at the Portland Press Herald and author of several books, says North America can be broken neatly into 11 separate nation-states, where dominant cultures explain our voting behaviors and attitudes toward everything from social issues to the role of government." The Weekly Links is intended to bring awareness of news stories related to the Appalachian region. An article's inclusion in this list does not imply agreement with or approval of all things written within.
I have attached to this post a documentary called "Mountain Talk," which illustrates and explains the origins and elements of mountain speech without denigrating it along the way. "Mountain Talk" is set in the mountains of western North Carolina. The film was created by the North Carolina Language and Life Project, which was established by North Carolina State University in 1993. The film can be purchased here. There are other renditions of "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," including one by Brad Paisley, but I consider this version offered by Patty Loveless to be the best. The sound is lonesome and chronicles the lives of a married couple enmeshed in the inescapable reality of coal mining in the "deep, dark hills of eastern Kentucky," despite their efforts to make a living elsewhere. In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That's the place where I traced my bloodline And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone "You'll never leave Harlan alive" Oh my grandfather's dad crossed the Cumberland Mountains Where he took a pretty girl to be his bride Said "Won't you walk with me out of the mouth of this holler Or we'll never leave Harlan alive" Where the sun comes up about ten in the mornin' And the sun goes down about three in the day And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinkin' And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away No one ever knew there was coal in them mountains Till a man from the northeast arrived Waving hundred dollar bills Said "I'll pay you for your minerals" But he never left Harlan alive Grandma sold out cheap and they moved out west of Pineville To a farm where Big Richland River winds And I bet they danced them a jig And they laughed and sang a new song "Who said we'd never leave Harlan alive" But the times, they got hard and tobacco wasn't selling And old grandad knew what he'd do to survive He went and dug for Harlan coal And sent the money back to grandma But he never left Harlan alive Where the sun comes up about ten in the mornin' And the sun goes down about three in the day And you'll fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinkin' And you spend your life diggin' coal from the bottom of your grave You'll never leave Harlan alive "Bristol-based Alpha Natural Resources plans to make more job cuts. They released disappointing third quarter earnings on Thursday. The company told us they plan to let go of 130 salaried employees and eliminate 100 vacant positions. They are cutting 230 total jobs and these cuts will be company-wide." "Sen. Rand Paul sees a 'depression' in Appalachia's coal country, and he says there's one man to blame for it: President Obama.The Kentucky Republican isn't alone in his fury over Obama's treatment of the coal industry. A bipartisan bloc of elected officials from across the region shares his views, including two influential West Virginia Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin and Rep. Nick Rahall. The critics argue that by tightening rules on mountaintop-removal coal mining and imposing greenhouse-gas emission limits on coal-fired power plants, Obama and his allies are regulating the industry out of business—and putting legions of coal miners out of work." "Using the arts to further local economies in eastern Kentucky is the focus of a Somerset conference this week. The Citizens’ Institute on rural Design meeting brings together local leaders, non-profits, community organizations, and citizens. Jack Herlihy studies economic development in Appalachia. He says many eastern Kentuckians take their talents to other communities, such as musicians heading to Tennessee." "Throughout the 1990s, in the face of environmental rules targeting acid rain and other forms of air pollution, Appalachia coal cleaned up its act, literally. The industry innovated and installed new technology, called “scrubbers,” to burn its coal more cleanly. Today the coal industry faces another round of regulations confronting an even larger environmental problem: global warming. Technology offers a solution, at least in theory, but it’s not yet ready to be the savior coal needs." "An upcoming summit on the future success of Southern and Eastern Kentucky will take place Monday, Dec. 9, at the Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center in Pikeville. 'S.O.A.R.: Shaping Our Appalachian Region' will be jointly hosted by Gov. Steve Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers and will include hundreds of the region’s residents. Attendees are expected to share new ideas and recommendations about how to move Kentucky’s Appalachian region forward." " For an increasing number of America's coal miners, the sunset on a career spent underground is being consumed in unrelenting legal battles with coal companies over the cause of their bone-rattling coughs, shortness of breath and difficulty sleeping. While thousands of miners have been told by their own doctors they have a disabling form of black lung disease, coal companies are fighting that diagnosis and the roughly $1,000-a-month in disability payments they would owe to miners who are proven to be stricken. And the coal companies are winning." " Black lung is the miner's malady -- a deadly disease tied to years of coal dust inhalation. Though stricter safety standards have led to a decline in black lung deaths since the 1970s, the disease still looms in mining states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and is at the center of a new yearlong investigation by ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross." "Coal companies have paid millions of dollars to Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions over the last decade for medical opinions that have been used to deny hundreds of ailing mine workers meager black lung benefits, a yearlong investigation by ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity found." The Weekly Links is intended to bring awareness of news stories related to the Appalachian region. An article's inclusion in this list does not imply agreement with or approval of all things written within.
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