Poverty KILLS

 

My parents were very industrious. My mother grew up in extreme poverty. Her father was killed in a gun battle in Evarts in 1938 – but that is for another story. So Granny had to raise them as best she could with the sweat of her brow and the pain in her back, never forgetting her morals. Granny was hard on mom and her brother. Of course she was, there was no social safety net so she relied on hard work from both her and her children. Mom said that “sometimes mommy bordered on cruel. If she hadn’t we wouldn’t have had enough to eat.”

Mom, like so many other Appalachian women, quit school in the 8^th grade and was married when she was 15 yrs old. She married a man who was very cruel. She said he was nice till they married and then he would burn her clothes and beat her if she let him. She divorced him 2 yrs later but had already had my eldest brother. She had to move back in with her mother who could barely afford to keep her own head above water too. So, six months later she remarried the abusive husband who had swore he had changed. It was only 3 week later when he beat on her again and she knocked him out with a glass baby bottle. Luckily she got away from him before he killed her. I asked her one time why she went back to him. She said “I had a child and no way to take care of him, Charles had a job.” So in other words poverty was the answer.

My dad on the other hand was raised in a family with only 2 children. Dad had an older sister that died of the croup at 6 months and he didn’t get a little sister until he was 18 yrs old. Dad graduated from Evarts High School in 1949. His family was again very industrious. Paw had a 5 acre Appalachian homestead and worked every day in a union coal mine. He sold vegetables, plants, tobacco, and eggs, he plowed for people, had a tractor, had two large barns, and a 4 bedroom home that they owned outright. Yes industrious was the word. All his family were just that industrious too, his brothers and sisters owned either farms, stores, and even a coal mine or two. But all around the family there were pockets of extreme poverty.

Some people just don’t recognize poverty when they see it. As far as me and my family I don’t remember poverty like I am about to describe. Mom experienced this level of poverty first hand. She said that the year I was born dad couldn’t get enough work so that she could not afford wax paper to wrap dad a sandwich to go to work. She put his sandwich in a hand towel and sometimes there was no sandwich only a dry biscuit. But when faced with such a dilemma they made a plan. Exactly what homesteaders and preppers have to have, a tactical, strategic goal oriented mindset. They realized that this was the road to a poverty that they or their children might not endure so dad left and went to Michigan, up the hillbilly highway, in search of work. When he had secured a good job in a factory and a place to live he came back for us 3 months later.

However, many Appalachian families didn’t have this option. They had neither the resources nor an ability to uproot everything they knew to go into the unknown. I imagine it is the same mindset the pioneers had. They put everything they had in a little wagon and headed west in search of an escape from poverty. About two thirds of homesteaders that went west didn’t make it the first year. About 4 million homestead claims were actually filed but only 1.6 million deeds were ever made. That means that 60% of all homesteaders couldn’t make it 5 yrs in order to get their deed and that is just the ones on paper. Imagine how many left and never filed a claim just squatted on a piece of land. It was a scary proposition indeed.

There are all sorts of reasons that poverty keeps people place bound. Just a few include: lack of the necessary education, lack of effective transportation, lack of funds for housing, childcare issues, family support system issues, etc, etc… The list goes on and on. So these folks are place bound. Also, Appalachia has a way of holding onto its poor children.

Like all rural natural resource abundant areas, Appalachia has vast natural resources and very high poverty. 17% of the folks who live in central Appalachia live below the national poverty line. In my native county of Harlan today 28% of the population live in poverty, with 33.7% of children living below the poverty line. What does that do to those kids? What is the result of poverty?

Now this piece isn’t about how they became impoverished, or who is to blame. This blog is about the results of poverty. My mother, her brother, and mother are excellent examples of what happens in impoverished families. My mother was not a drinker. Neither of the men she married were drinkers or drug takers. My uncle nor his mother were drinkers. So the alcohol and drug epidemic that affects large swaths of Appalachia was not a factor for them. However, the lifestyle they led was indicative of poor people all over the nation and world for that matter. The foods they ate lead to diseases that lead to their demise.

Mom said they always had plenty to eat but it was rough grub. Meaning it consisted of beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread, and starches and sugars, things that provided energy but little protein and vitamins. When my mother was pregnant with my oldest brother she didn’t go to the doctor until time to deliver. She couldn’t afford to go. Thus she didn’t get the vitamins she needed and within a year or two had lost all her teeth. She had to get dentures before she was 30 yrs old. My uncle was a big guy. The diet had led him down the road to weight gain and diabetes. But, since they didn’t have health insurance he didn’t control it. Also, they didn’t have the drugs they have now. By 38 he had suffered a major heart attack and by 52 was dead from the third one. As an educator I know that children of impoverished families tend to not do as well in school. Is it their upbringing, nutrition, available resources, or is it all of the above?

Poverty causes all sorts of issues. Some say the reason is the choices that people in Appalachia make. Some of that is true. But being a business leader I have been in meetings when coal mine owners were advised to diversify in order to help the area in lull coal producing times known as busts. One coal owner stood up in the meeting – the wealthiest of the bunch – Looked me dead in the eye and said “All we know is coal. All we want to know is coal and as long as I am alive all these sons of bitches are going to know is coal. So get that through your head.” There was a general consensus of agreement around the table.  So I am here to tell you that poverty is more than the individual impoverished. It can also be built into the system on purpose. He went on “if there is some factory that pays $15 per hour how the hell can we get these guys to go underground for $12 per hour. If factories come in here it will kill our business!”

To that end they spent considerable monies making sure that their local candidates were elected. I had a close friend in high school tell me that his dad spent $100,000 on one local race. The purpose was to vote only coal related issues and to see that no other issues came to the table. It didn’t matter what party the candidate was in just that their policies aligned with the coal operators policies.

So before you are so quick to judge folks think about their situations. Like that old saying about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, don’t be quick to judge. Instead be quick to help. I have spent my life dedicated to the service of my fellow man. I try to continue that as I move on into old age. I know my days are numbered now but that doesn’t mean I have abandoned the ideals of my youth. I am not some old guy trying to work my way into heaven. If your only reason to help people is to stay out of hell you were never a good person to start with. You can at least make your part of the world just a little better with just a little empathy. If we can pray for each other and love our neighbors and really mean it we can create a better world through our actions.

I think about the kids of my youth that grew up dirt poor. Many are dead now victims of poverty, drugs, alcohol, and some just dumb luck. I miss them and think of them daily but try to understand their situation and the choices they made. I hope this letter finds you well and I hope you will remember that life, like Homesteading is a Marathon not a Sprint – Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride!!!  And LOVE that’s free if you will just give it. 

 

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