Except for the fact that it’s not all there is.

They have a ballot box available for their use.

And twice in a row, they voted for Chimpus Maximus.

Because, I suppose, The Jeebus hates him some faggots.

My sympathy for the Appalachian downtrodden would be greatly magnified if they were not such frequent and enthusiastic collaborators in their own economic and political exploitation.

I know a couple of people who grew up in WV. They got the hell out as fast as they could. One said that in his home town, reading a book in public was and is a surefire way to get the shit kicked out of you by the local young toughs. That’s a backward-ass culture by anyone’s definition. (Just as it is in black ghettos. Wilful ignorance knows no color bar.)

Let ‘em start reading and voting in something other than a pathetically retrogressive way and we’ll see what happens.

Another good movie about mining and unions was Matawan (I hope I spelled it correctly). If Americans really studied labor history in this country, they would be appalled at the corruption and colusion of government against the people.

Matewan should be required viewing for every American.

-GFO

So much changed in the mines just during my Grandfather’s life. He arrived in the US as a kid in the late 1890’s and went to work straight in the mines, like so many of them did. The improvement in working conditions, both in terms of child labor, length of work days, and health conditions, were a direct result of the Union. Mom said that every night at Grace, they’d thank God for their food and thank God for the United Mine Workers.

As Christy has said better than I ever could, we’ve been backsliding. Bush has been breaking the Unions, dismantling workplace safety rules, and diluting environmental and health protections. We can’t let this occur. We can’t as a society return to the world my Grandfather worked in (regardless of the industry in question) and Upton Sinclair exposed (he was from Baltimore, btw).

Amazing post Christy. I know you’ll dig this, one of Sting’s songs that I recently rediscovered is “We Work the Black Seam”

I thought of Sting’s song when I saw that grimy face on the front page.

Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together

As for this tune:

O Daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenburg County
Down by the Green River where paradise lay
I’m sorry my son but you’re too late in asking
Mr. Peabody’s coal train done hauled it away

.

It’s ‘Paradise’ by John Prine.

Hear me on this, for a bitch is a witness to choice on a different level as it relates to me and mine…to sisters of color…and the poor.

So, let’s talk about sex…about “down there” and why some of my sisters can’t call it by name even after their child was born through it. About a government that spends millions to protect ignorance but scoffs at the idea of promoting knowledge. Women of color need to recognize…our fists should be raised in anger! Listen to what is being said…that women of color aren’t capable of making sound medical decisions…that knowing shit is dangerous for us…that we don’t value our reproductive future and that we are unfit to decide what the fuck that future should be.

Don’t come at me with rhetorical bullshit when actions have been speaking volumes in my community of St. Louis city for years.

When STD infections and unplanned teen pregnancies are more prevalent than stable employment and decent grocery stores in the hood.

When HIV/AIDS infection rates are rising for women of color and many don’t even know their status.

When infertility treatments are being denied some while politicians pontificate about the sanctity of the lives of others.

When fearing a generation of AIDS orphans is no longer a third world only concern.

Is that about choice?

You bet your ass it is.

Members of Congress may moan and groan about facing tough choices, but I have a feeling that they know not of what they speak. ABB knows, and she speaks loudly and clearly.

I like good hardworking people, and I like intellectual professionals, but those professionals who truefully appreciate the hard working folks, without a hint of superiority or intent of exploitation, are the best people I know.

I count you as one.

They all missed WV and wished they could go back. I think they missed the mountains and the green. Detroit was a big city and so grey in the winter to them. Jane Fonda did a film called the Doll Maker about the migration of Appalacians to Detroit and the cultural difficulties of the move to a northern industrial city. Another good movie about mining and unions was Matawan (I hope I spelled it correctly). If Americans really studied labor history in this country, they would be appalled at the corruption and colusion of government against the people.