A Hidden America... You Tube... New York State... Rural Poverty

["A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains"; as submitted to You Tube by ChrisAppProj on 2/12/09; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ZfIYAYsgA]

I was just going to take a breather today and take care of some other things...

But earlier, on the car radio, I heard that "they" [ambiguous] were encouraging folks in rural areas to purchase washers and dryers...

And I couldn't help but think, "maybe you better make sure they have running water [think of what it is like for a family of seven, living in a small two bedroom house, with no running water...] first!"

Then tonight, I remembered that Obama has addressed this issue (somewhat of a "miracle" in my book!) - and I decided to do a blip (this topic is very close to my heart, having come from similar circumstances in UPSTATE NEW YORK) - on this topic...

And this video clip (I did see part of this show the other night) was (on You Tube) "front and center"...

I always cry : ( when I get anywhere near this topic...

I cried again when I watched this...

Silly sad me, being vulnerable...

Feeling some of that old anger that never totally (despite having turned out to be one of the luckier "survivors" of generational rural poverty) goes away.

Enough said.

Except for the fact that some folks need to be made aware that a whole lot of families exist - in similar conditions - right around here...

And these conditions certainly still exist (my older siblings still cry and/or have nightmares about this stuff too...) - in the rural upstate community that I grew up in!

Senator Moynahan, now deceased, was aware of this; and tried, in his time and way, to help...

Leonard Pitts, a syndicated writer whom I admire a great deal, has addressed the topic with compassion and insight...

I wrote a paper once, titled (I think) "White Out in American Statistics" - about the fact that the problem of severe poverty amongst the White poor (rural and otherwise) is severe; and rarely, by the mainstream media, addressed...

And it is a problem area where a whole lot more needs to be DONE - because a whole lot of children (of all races / ethnicity's) are suffering (here and now) extreme hardship, as a result of (too often ignored and/or denied) rural poverty...

See, if we don't deal "straight up" and constructively with these sorts of problems - "they (the problems) will" - as the saying goes - "deal with us" [generation after generation of pain and heartache / generation after generation of stunted social, economical, political (and sometimes, even physical) growth -- shattered lives all too often inclusive of high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, children birthing and raising children, domestic violence and other types of traumatic events..., etc.]

Yeah, 45+ years later, it still hurts!

And although Appalachia (I studied up on this whilst in college) is certainly the "poster child" of rural poverty...

I could / a whole bunch of people could (from right here in New York State) - tell you a lot of horror stories of my / our own.

Peace, Love, Equality and Humane Justice,

NS