Howdy

I'm from Kentucky, too.

The Mountian Dew Mouth area.

Did you recognize any of your relatives on 20/20 Friday night?

No kinfolk of mine showed up on TV.

Just thought I'd throw that in there.

WARNING!!!! MAY BE TOO LONG!!!!

My feelings on that broadcast was:

Yes, that is a good depiction of some people in Appalachia. But please don't take it that every household on poverty level lives like that. We have a lot of poor people that are the pillars of their communities.

There's no shame in being poor. Appalachia is rich in culture, talent, history and spirit. There's no better scenery in the summertime than the hills of Appalachia. Visit our lakes and get to the know the poeple of Appalachia. They are honest, clean, decent, smart, hard-working, fun-loving people. They care for the farms, homes, childern, livestock, gardens, churches, families, businesses and friends with TLC, usually handed down from generation to generation, for the most part.

And yes, there are a lot of crooked people here too. the only difference is, living in a small town you know who they are. They have it rough here. They manage to peddle and piddle along too. You just know up front who you're dealing with.

Yes, we are polluted with drugs and all the bad that comes with it. It's sad. But UNITE is taking that problem down to the mat in a big way. Illicit drugs are harder to get in this area because of UNITE. Other areas should follow their example. That's the KY State Police, sheriffs, city police departments, DOTs and the feds working together to bust drugs up. UNITE appoints committees made up of community citizens to watch over the arrests and convictions and report that to the communities. It's been effective.

You couldn't live in a better place than KY for good, down-to-earth living, if that's what you want out of life. We have a few big cities too. And on the other hand, compared to many other places, I'm sure it's a hard way of life to many viewers.

...but have you ever seen the beauty of a newborn calf on a cold, wintery day? or a town with one red light? You don't have to buy a map. Just ask somebody where it's at.

I don't see homeless people on our city streets. I know we have some displaced people, but they're mostly under the roof of family and friends or government housing. We don't have a lot of foreclosures like the rest of the nation is experiencing. Housing is down. People just aren't buying.

I don't know what happened to Shawn Grimm - the 18-year-old football star for Johnson Central. I am asking about that boy. My heart goes out to him. He may not want charity. People are proud, rich or poor, here in the hills. Some are beaten down... and the truth of the matter is, for most of them, they never had a chance, and that's a sad picture.

There are a lot of highly educated people here in the hills. Intelligence can be measured by just knowing what you need to know too, can't it? hee-hee. Education is available through government programs too, but a lot of times families are not able or don't understand they will need to provide money and support for that too.

I hear there are more millionaires in Pike County than anywhere. I don't doubt it. Old money. Coal related jobs are the average person's best job here. It pays and provides well. People don't manage money well is another problem... and that's everywhere.

Appalachia has a lot of government programs available to poor people. They are provided for, at a minimum. Hey, I hear nowadays they even provide 1 cellphone per household with childern on some program here.

And another thing I've figured out about life, you can't fix stupid. You can do it for them, but you just can't fix it.