Diane Sawyer - Appalachian Special

[Daisy and Delilah]

I can't get this show off my mind. Probably because I lived there for a few years and saw it firsthand. This was the show about the Appalacian families living in poverty.

ABC's website has hundreds of comments to the show. I wonder if anyone on PT watched it and what are your thoughts?

[Marigold2]

I saw it and it made me sick.
Quit having kids you can't afford.
This is 2009 not 1829.
Finish high school.
Learn to read and write.
Stop taking drugs.
Maybe then someone will want to hire you and you can improve your life.
The kids seemed smarter then the adults, maybe they will learn from their mistakes but who knows. This has been going on for decades.
This is America. Education is free. If an immagrant can come here and learn the language, graduate high school and find a job these people can as well.
People come here in their 20's and 30's from all over the world, China, Russia, Poland, Hollland, France, Latvia and learn to speak English and finds job, these people have no excuse.

[Cinder & Smoke]

... I lived there for a few years and saw it firsthand.

This was the show about the Appalacian families living in poverty.

wow!

Here's a link to the ABC 20/20 streaming video of the entire show >>>

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6877502

Hard to believe this was shot in America.

[Pam]

I saw it and, like you, can't get it off my mind. I think it goes way beyond "having kids you can't afford, etc." I was left with the impression that this lifestyle leads to depression and hopelessness and this is not always easy to overcome. Even one of the children commented that she feels her mom is on drugs because of despair. I think we'd better not judge them until we have walked in their shoes. It is only by the grace of God that most of us here were born into loving families with resources to give us all of the opportunities that these people lack.

The young boy in the beginning (the football star) had a chance to break out and couldn't make it in college and came back. I don't think we have seen the last of him, however. I feel certainly that someone who has watched this program will step in and help him. Diane Sawyer did a similar show on life in the city of Camden, NJ (10 miles from me) a few years ago and there was a tremendous outpouring of help for the families featured in that program. I hope this program will do the same for the people of Appalachia.

[Marigold2]

I too hope that the young man gets a change and I am sure people will step up to help. We Americans can do great things.
All of those drug taking, hopeless adults were once cute kids suffering as well and instead of saying to themselves " I won't do this to my kids" they have generation after generation. They need to change, they need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and want to improve.
Sitting at home collecting welfare, taking drugs and having more kids is not the answer. It has never worked for any country or any generation.
America still offers free education. The library is free, the internet is free, there are books on Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Books on writing a resume, how to get a job. There are wonderful people who work there who will help you, explain things to you. There are newspapers where you can look for a job. Many have classes on babysitting, book clubs, and computer classes all free.
The library is a place you can take your kids to and spend all day. Books to read, puzzles to do. I use to walk to ours and spend the whole afternoon there with my three kids, especially in the summer as we did not having AC in our first home. I would feed the kids lunch and we would walk the mile there, spend 3 or 4 hours and then walk home and have dinner it was wonderful. My daughter loved it so much that her first job was as a library aid.
I don't know anything about AA but if there is not a chapter close perhaps someone could call and they can start one. Maybe someone from the local high school can tutor a group of adults in math or reading.
Also many hospitals offer free classes on everything from child birth to planning for retirement, also things such as healthy eating, exercise, weight control the list is endless. These opinions are already in place they just need to get of their butts and take advantage of them.
There are so many opinions, so many. A bit of imagination, lots of hardwork and a willingness to change and improve is what it takes. Giving these people welfare generation after generation is not the answer.
As I said I don't have pity for the adults, they were those cute kids once and they saw and experienced the hardship. Kids are always cute and we always want to help them but people need to help themselves, people need to change and give back, not just take and take and take.

[Pam]

You have to try and put yourself into their mindset. I am sure depression plays a tremendous role. Many of the people that live high in the mountains do not have access to many of the things that you comment on. They have no cars to even get to a job. Remember the woman who had to walk 8 miles each day (one direction)? I am sure many of those kids have no access to a lot of what you are mentioning. Did you hear one of them say that they can't even remember ever having a book in their home when they were growing up? Libraries and internet are not available when you are that rural. Some do not even have electricity. Yes, it is a cycle for sure but I find myself having more pity for these people than I do for the inner city poor. They have the same despair and depression and collect the same welfare, but are within walking distance of places where they can get help.

[Medusa]

I could barely sit through the segment, it was so painful to watch. IMO, what most people in Appalachia are lacking is hope. When you lose hope, you give up. Even if they say that they haven't given up, it's clear that many have.

It's easy for us to say "Go to the library" while we sit here in the comfort of our warm homes typing out insensitive words on our computer keyboard but if you haven't had a place to lay your head and you're cold and sore and bones are aching from lack of sleep and peace of mind, and then you have to walk 8 miles one way to get a GED, it takes a strong mindset and will to plod through.

My father was raised in poverty, not in Appalachia, but poverty nonetheless. He was a coal miner who, in his time, was paid by the ton, ie., how much coal he mined determined his pay check. Plus he worked w/explosives and many days worked in waist high water. He got caught in a cave-in once and had second degree burns on his back but he went back to work immediately after being treated. He didn't pack a lunch; he worked through his lunch hour so that he could mine an extra ton of coal to bring home more money. We didn't have a car then, so he rode the bus to and from work and from our apartment window I would watch him get off the bus and drag himself home, too tired to remove his helmet, face black w/coal dust and weary from working underground all day. He'd run his bath water and fall asleep in the tub every day, then go to bed, wake up at 2:00 AM and have a big breakfast, which was sometimes last night's dinner, then get on the bus that morning and do it all over again. He never gave up and only retired because the mine that he worked in closed and he would've had to work out of state and at age 62, decided against that. He retired w/benefits and black lung disease. We were never wealthy, to be sure, and we were broke more often than not, but we were never poor. Being broke is a condition; being poor is a state of mind.

[Daisy and Delilah]

I'm so glad some of you saw it. Pam, you're right on the money with what you're saying. I will tell some of my story and it might make some of it clearer.

I had just married my husband(1st). He was from a small town in southwestern Virginia. We moved there because my husband wanted to. At the time, I was very young and pretty spoiled, growing up in Florida. My Mom couldn't give us alot but she did her best. We ended up living with my husband's family. His Dad was a coal miner, they had 16 children and most of them lived in the same house. Outside toilet, no running water, hence, no hot water. They heated the house with a coal and wood stove that basically heated the room it was in. We were lucky if any heat made it to other areas at all. Good luck if you're trying to sleep and it's -0- degrees outside.

My FIL owed his soul to the company store--he still did when he died of black lung after 39 years in the mines. They lived on beans, taters, and, bread. No meat, and, veggies that were home grown and canned.

Those people rarely left the 5 mile radius of their homes. Being raised by their ancestors that are all uneducated, no one knows what the wrong and right ways are for almost everything. They know what they've been taught and that's it. If someone comes along and tries to change them, it's usually futile because they're basically too frightened to try anything new. Kids drop out of school as soon as it's legal and the parent's let them. After all, they may need them for something around the house, garden, etc.

They are good, God fearing people but they are very unapproachable. It took forever for them to even speak to me.

That was back in the mid 70's. I was shocked at how these people live. I called it uncivilized. They are all terrified to leave their families. If they're family members aren't all moving away for a better life, it's much easier for them to stay together and live this way.

As far as the Diane Sawyer special. I'm sure she depicted some areas accurately but not all the Appalachians are like that. I saw the local doctor(one doctor)give out alot of meds, non narcotic,(at that time) to alot of people because they were so unhealthy and complaining of multiple ailments. Believe it or not, these people are so simple and sometimes so bored, their illnessess, large or small, are the only things they have to talk about. They become obsessed with that and believe that taking meds is the way life should be. Alot of them drink soda but not all of them are force feeding their children Mountain Dew. The incest is another thing. I didn't personally see it but I think it's probably there.

One of the ladies had tattoos. I didn't ever see a tattoo there. everyone smokes because it seems the way to live because everybody does it. If you never hear how bad it is, how do you know, or care?

This is just a small piece of it. I think alot of us can't understand that people can actually be like this. This is why these people need to be exposed and helped asap. It won't be easy to get them to accept the help because they're extremely proud people.

If anyone wants to learn alot more about it, go to the ABC website and read the comments. Very interesting reading there. There are hundreds of people willing to help Shawn Grim--the boy that dropped out of school.
I personally believe that Shawn could have gotten help to stay there but he was too scared to continue. He had lost confidence again. He was the high school hero but college life was just too much. He knew his family would give him a comfortable feeling by coming home.
I read that he's making $60K a year in the coal mines now. $60K is not nearly enough to pay those people for what they do. Some say that that's not living in poverty. After hearing some of the stories I've heard about going in the mines, I think people would agree that $60K can't touch the humility, danger, and fear the mines have to offer.

I should also say that: I really believe that prescription pain killers are given out and used by many many people there now. The areas are perfect for introducing something like that and everybody wanting to get in on it. That's the way they are. The documentary made it appear that they are all living on pills and starving their children. Not the case. They love their children. Most of them are probably charging the food for the kids, getting food stamps, government give aways, eating at relatives homes. They also have alot of store keepers that will exchange cash for food stamps. Most of them live on medicaid so they get the original rx's free. Everybody knows everybody and there could be barter exchanges going on for those large quantites of pills. It's a life that most of us can't imagine.

[pomtzu]

Mary & Terry - that's pretty heavy stuff!!!
All to often we take for granted and complain about our lives, and what we don't have - and then to see the way life is just a few hundred miles from here! I just can't even imaging the strife that they live every day.
I didn't see the whole show when it was on (sleep takes over again), but I'll watch the video available from ABC a little later.

[Pam]

Medusa and Terry thank you for your stories. I hope they, and the documentary, have shed some light and I hope that those who are in positions to do something will act, and soon. I remember a few years ago going on vacation to the Skyline Drive in Virginia. We passed through West Virginia and saw much poverty along the way. You could actually see daylight through a few of the houses. We stopped at a Mc Donald's and a man sat there eating crackers that were given to him for free, along with little packets of ketchup that are given out with hamburgers that he carefully spread over the crackers. From his conversation with the workers you could tell that he was a "regular" and this was an example of how he was able to eat. I was fascinated with how people could exist with so little. A few years ago I also caught another documentary on life in Appalachia and it centered around one family. I believe it was on PBS although I could be wrong but it was excellent and I can still remember the family vividly in my mind. They were good people, just not able to rise above the circumstances of their birth.

I found a writer (Sharyn McCrumb) a few years ago who writes about life in Appalachia. She lives and writes in the Blue Ridge mountains less than 100 miles from where her family settled in 1790 in the Smoky Mountains. The first book I read by her was The Rosewood Casket and I think I have read all of her books by now. Her books, though fiction, will take you to a place that you have never gone and you will be hooked from the start (at least I was).

[Alysser]

I honestly had no idea people still lived like that, it's sickening, especially in "America". I watched and I was speechless, at the end when they said that boy gave up on college I was really sad, he was really trying to make a life for himself. I am glad though that the Girl named Angel got her GED and I'm glad these people are trying at least...

It makes me really want to help, I'm glad I'm young and I can possibly help some of these people in the future. I hope this documentary really raises awareness and more people try and help! My cousin goes there every summer for 2 weeks with a volunteer organization to help out down there, it's good they are getting more help The guy who made a mobile dentist made me happier. Incest, drugs, hunger, etc are really bad problems up there but I hope to god that they can solve it. I cannot believe people live in such poverty it makes me so sad. Maybe now they will start getting the help they needed.

The guy in the coal mines made me really sad to, he was only 19 years old!! They might make a "good" salary but they die very young I'm sure That show was pretty powerful, I'm sure it moved many people and I hope it is going to be the start of a change for Appalachia.

[Pam]

Diane Sawyer said today that tomorrow morning on GMA they will have an update on this show reflecting the outpouring of interest that everyone had after viewing. I hope I remember to watch. Better tie a string around my finger.

[Daisy and Delilah]

Thanks Pam!! I'll get a reminder post it on the tv now. There was a huge response to it and alot of the comments were directed at Diane herself. I know she was hurt by many of the remarks.

[Pam]

Well that was a short little update (but encouraging!). Terry I hope you saw it. Lots of people have responded as I knew they would. They are going to update further on 20/20 on Friday night.

[smokey the elder]

All these charities come on pitching to help kids overseas, but I never see a commercial for a charity helping American poor kids, whether they be inner city, Native Americans on the reservation or Appalachians. I think these people tend to fall through the cracks (out of sight, out of mind.) No person should have to mine for a living, IMO. It's very dangerous, and this is one place where I think it's better to use machinery, and train the people to operate the machines.