Dear Diane Sawyer: The Other Children of the Mountains

While Diane Sawyer should be applauded for her interest in spotlighting the impoverished conditions of Appalachian children today--and even taking time to plug her program on Bill O'Reilly's program, who simply declared "their parents are drunks"--it's a crying shame that she didn't look at the deeper causes of poverty and dispossession, and the Appalachian heroes fighting back, in the region.

In the same eastern Kentucky counties that Sawyer visited, coal mining employment--which has maintained a stranglehold on the region and kept out any other attempts at a sustainable and diversified economy--has plummeted by nearly 70 percent in some areas, thanks largely to the highly mechanized and devastating use of mountaintop removal strip mining.

Sawyer left a lot of key issues hidden in, "A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains."

Start with the theme song of her program, "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," which is a brilliant look at the unfair role of coal companies in exploiting land and mineral rights laws, dispossessing backwoods farmers from their land, and trapping them into the singular coal mining economy. The song ends: "And you spend your life digging coal from the bottom of your grave."

Darrel Scot's version is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su06XlGI-w8&feature=related

Patty Loveless' version is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3IrnNAweM0&feature=related

As the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth have shown, mountaintop removal and strip mining, in general, have led to massive unemployment in the coal mining region, depopulated many of the rural communities, and polluted the watersheds.

Here is a chart outlining the quality of life indicators vs. coal production statistics in the last 20 years in these coal counties: http://www.kftc.org/our-work/canary-project/campaigns/mtr/county-profiles

Instead of wringing their hands in sadness and powerlessness, the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth are some of the real heroes in region, working to bring economic and social justice to the coalfields. Sawyer should have taken the time to check out their work:
http://www.kftc.org/our-work/canary-project/campaigns/mtr/MTR-generalinfo

In fact, eastern Kentuckians and citizens from around the region will be converging on Frankfort today, as part of "I Love Mountains Day in Kentucky," calling for an end to mountaintop removal and a shift toward a sustainable future for Appalachia.
http://www.kftc.org/calendar/events/i-love-mountains-day-2009

Perhaps Sawyer can do another program on the need for green jobs in Appalachia.

While poverty certainly exists in a scandalous way in Appalachia, it's too bad Sawyer didn't talk to some of the writers and artists and activists who have shattered the hillbilly stereotype, fought against the injustices of the coal companies, and shaped the way the America lives today.

Some of these great heroes include author Silas House, whose novels and plays are some of the most compelling and fearless literary work today.

Silas House should be a household name in America. http://www.ket.org/muse/novelapproach/silas.htm

Diane Sawyer wants to understand the children of the mountains, she needs to interview Silas House.

And finally, any discussion about drug addiction in Appalachia must examine the role of the OxyContin makers and their admitted deception in marketing the highly addictive painkiller. In court last year, the Purdue Frederick Company recognized that they had made billions of dollars in sales, while admitting to false marketing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/05/10/AR2007051000892_pf.html

Comments

[OctoberLady06]

JEFF BIGGERS ..

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE IN EASTERN KENTUCKY ... GOOD FOLKS WHO ARE NEITHER DRUG ADDICTS, LAZY, MINUS THEIR TEETH, AND MORALS!! AND SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE ARE WEALTHY ENOUGH TO LIVE ANY WHERE THEY CHOOSE BUT PREFER THE EAST KENTUCKY HILLS -- A SERENE, BEAUTIFUL AND CALMING PLACE TO BE!!

[bre18]

I am an 18 year old Kentucky high school student and I have to say that I was appalled by what I seen. I felt that Diana Sawyer could of at least taken time to tell about the positive instead of the negative. We already have a bad reputation with the rest of the U.S. does she really need to reinforce it with this video. While I will admit that we do have our drug problems, so does the rest of the world. I get so sick of the sterotype that we're all dumb, racist, inbred, etc, etc. While that may hold true for a few there are so many of us trying to break those sterotypes and it doesn't help when someone comes in and destroys what we've worked so hard to try to stop. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while you do have the bad you also have the good, and usually there is more good than bad in any society. The problem is the bad is what gets all the attention. I'm not claiming that Kentucky is a utopian society, but neither is any other state. So next time someone decides to make a special about poor, destitute Kentucky children they should include the good with the bad.

[DaveTabler]

As I was watching this show, I envisioned some producer in New York City going down a pre-determined checklist of all the things they wanted the film crew to track down upon their arrival in Kentucky: "Let's see: drug addled hillbillies? Check! Oppressed coal miners? Check! Incest and family feuding? Check! Check!"

How very easy it is to simply feed the gullible public the worn stereotype the media itself has helped to nurture so carefully.

Yes, Appalachia has all the things mentioned above, but it also has healthy middle class families raising children to be responsible adults. It has a rich heritage which has contributed to helping define the broader American character---this is, after all, the exact region of Appalachia that gave us Daniel Boone. And Appalachian folks have a tremendous amount of pride in who they are. They do not need nor seek to be pitied by other Americans, but rather to be understood on their own terms. This 20/20 special did not go nearly far enough to present a balanced view of those terms.

Dave Tabler
www.appalachianhistory.net

[HeevenSteven]

I wouldn't expect anything less from ABC news but a glossed over superficial story that ignores uncomfortable facts.