At the same time, any political visits prior to an election, are what they are....to rally votes. If more politicians, government agencies, lobbyists and business leaders, would work together and not let partisan politics, stand in the way....Kentucky and every state, would prosper in all regions.

:thumb: :thumb:

Good post. However, two thoughts come to me as I read it:

 

All those items you mentioned would apply to almost any area.

 

We pay a high price for such attention in terms of proliferation of the stereotype.

Agree and that is why, I said "aspects that plaque most states".....poverty, wealth, educational concerns, housing, jobs and so on, are constant problems in every state, in every region and encompass many.

 

I honestly don't believe, stereotypical accolades will ever change, regarding certain states. Appearance, mannerisms, dialect will be what many base their own first impressions on....can't change that but what can be changed, is for those who have problems within their community, to find a way to work together, for one cause to make a deficiency, a positive, that all can be proud of.

 

Willingness to accept, is the downfall of many. It only takes minimal effort, to effect a change. Find those who are leaders, to overcome the motivation, of those who are followers.

Back to the original question, does anyone see any real benefits from Edward's visit?

JMO but No, How many times has this area and others seen all of this before and then forgotten about. I just get sick of seeing the good people of Eastern Ky. exploited / labled/ stereotyped in the media. Hopefully someday there will be someone that will back up their "lip service" with actions. Unless blue is your favorite color...... don't hold your breath.

Strike3. Again, I agree, but what do you see in Edwards' proposal that will bring about any change? We have social programs and safety nets for the poor in layers already and I've seen nothing in his visit that is going to inspire changes in the attitudes you referred to.

I don't know if anyone has taken the time to actually read what he's proposing, so here's a link: A National Goal: End Poverty Within 30 Years

 

He's not proposing more or expanded entitlement programs.

 

Here's an example of one of his points:

 

Rewarding Work

 

Create 1 Million Stepping Stone Jobs for Workers Who Take Responsibility. Every American should have the chance to work their way out of poverty. However, some willing workers cannot find jobs because of the place they live, a lack of skills, experience, and references, or other obstacles like a criminal record. As much as 18 percent of former welfare recipients do not have a job. Edwards suggested creating 1 million temporary jobs over five years. The jobs would be reserved for individuals who cannot find other work after six months of looking, pay the minimum wage, and last up to 12 months. In return, workers must show up and work hard, stay off drugs, not commit any crimes, and pay child support. Studies have shown that these programs are successful moving people into permanent jobs. Jobs would be chosen carefully with local business and labor leaders to meet local needs without displacing existing workers. [Turner, Danziger and Seefeldt, 2006; Mathematica, 2002; CBPP, 1997; Ellwood and Welty, 1999]

Rockmom, there's nothing new there. I went to the link and every proposal I saw is already in place and has been in one form or another since the mid 60s.

Oh, and by the way, the program you've chosen to highlight does work. Just to illustrate how long it's been around, my mother entered that program some 40 years ago. She was given a job as a teacher's aide in our local system and her tuition was paid to attend night classes at Union College. She received her degree from there.

Strike3. Again, I agree, but what do you see in Edwards' proposal that will bring about any change? We have social programs and safety nets for the poor in layers already and I've seen nothing in his visit that is going to inspire changes in the attitudes you referred to.

I've not read his proposal but words are great from politicians, but in the end, when the buses and private cars leave, it's back to normal way of life for many.

 

Change must be affected by a willingness of the community, local leaders and a desire for change....Some have to wake up one morning and say "Enough is enough" and look at improving life. Once that is done enough times, opportunities must be available, for new job training, continuing education, transportation, affordable health care and take one step, at a time.

Poverty is a REAL issue here. It makes me mad whenever the national media finally exposes the truth and all of a sudden every city council across eastern KY files complaints on local tv stations or in the local newspapers. Before a problem can ever be fixed, it must first be realized to be a PROBLEM. Unfortunately, when Edwards is here, if he tours anywhere, I'm sure that he will be taken up to Stone Crest golf course and take a tour around one of the most expensive sub-divisions in the entire state instead of going up into the head of David or up into Wheelwright where he can actually see the problem alot of people in Eastern KY live in. It embarrasses me that we won't face our problems!

I know full well what the communities are like that you have stated that need assistance, but would you not agree that the first step towards improving the situation would be to want to help yourself first? That seems to be a lot of the problem, it is so easy to sit back and want someone else to take care of your problems instead of taking the government handout route. We have grown up in a society where a large portion of the people have that "government check is owed to me mentality". It has been breed into them from generation to generation to generation. Education and pride is the only way out of the situation that exists. Government assistance was designed to help those that may have encountered medical problems and just plain cannot work, or to help someone who may have lost the family breadwinner through a death or disability. I truely have compassion for those people. Those are the people that truely need and deserve help.

 

It does however burns me up to offer some of these very same people that a lot of you posters are feeling this undying sympathy for "A JOB" and have them just laugh in your face. Some feel they have it made just the way things are. They are very well satisfied with the way of life they have. Heck some feel, that they may not have everything, but it sure beats the heck out of working for a living.

 

What is truely embarrassing is to drive to some of the locations that you just mentioned and see the mountains of garbage in the yards, the junk cars sitting everywhere, and the just plain filth. I was always told by my parents that there is no shame in being poor, the real shame is in being dirty. BTW, you would probably be surprised at whom some of these people are, and of what their incomes may actually be. A lot of them probably have higher incomes than what some of you that are expressing the outrage of their living conditions. Eastern Kentucky as well as other distressed areas will never be any different than what they are until that big old word PRIDE comes into play.

 

I know I may sound hard and cruel, but I am not. I just have a hard time sugarcoating everything. I have many family members that I classify with this same mentality that I just emphasized. It is nothing that I am proud of , but it is just the plain honest truth.

 

I am a complete advocate of helping those in need, but not those they have no intentions of now or ever in the future of wanting to help themselves. It's just a plain fact of life that we deal with and accept. Get mad at me , say what you will, and rake me over the coals. It will not change part of the cold hard truth. Have any of you people ever been to a convenient store on check day and see the lines of people standing to buy handfuls of lottery tickets, with a carload of hungry, dirty children sitting out in the parking lot? People this is what has to change. Priorities have become all misconstrued. Some of these people will blow every dime they get on this type of foolishness rather than put clothes on their children's backs or put food on their children's table. The question I ask is how can you help people like this? The answer is you cant, if they dont want to help themselves.

 

Again, if we here in eastern Kentucky truely want to change our image, then it has to start on the insides of the individuals. You have to plain out detest poverty and poor living conditions and have the mentality that you are going to above all things respect yourself. Yes, there are many here (just like there is in every portion of the country) that truely needs help but there are so so many that would not change the manner in which they live if they were given a million dollars a year in government aid.

 

We dont need anymore government handouts. We as a culture of people, first need to change a few things within ourselves.

^ The people that Firebird is referring to do exist and in large numbers. Everyone who lives in or frequents this area can tell the same story or worse. For politicians who would exploit this lifestyle for political gain it's a target rich enviroment, but for the hard working people of the area who are actually striving to make a better life for themselves and their children, it's a nightmare. While calling attention to these conditions brings in even more handouts and programs plus votes for the politician, it also perpetuates the stereotype which in turn is a deterent to attracting business into the area.

 

So what can a political candidate such as Edwards really do to help the region? Legislation. It's time to right the wrongs that caused the region to be so poor in the beginning. It's time to pass a law declaring all mineral rights contracts signed prior to, say, 1960 to be null and void. A great number of these deeds are over a century old, more than adequate time for the out of state companies that own them to have acted to remove the coal, gas, or oil is they so desired and get a handsome return on their two dollar per acre investment. Very many of the poor we've been discussing are actually living in a shack or a delapidated trailer on huge tracts of land. This land, minus the mineral rights, presents an extremely low tax base as it is far too steep and rocky for any purpose other than timber and is often valued at less than $100 per acre. By returning the rights to the land owner, we create a new class of citizenry with a large amount of disposable income. By also allowing all coal severence tax to be returned to the county of origin, we provide a means for local goverments to build roads to alleviate the isolation of these areas. To build and fund better schools. To build water and sewage plants, and too ween ourselves from dependence on other areas such as what the KERA act has provided. My vision is too then see this money reinvested into outlet malls and other ventures designed to attract tourists into the area where they will discover the natural beauty of the region. I see the formerly worthless mountainsides dotted with chalets and hunting lodges to cater to the hunters and wildlife viewers who will come to the area to experience our elk and bears. I see a huge tax base supported by these ventures, allowing even more investment and even more dollars.

 

Finally, I see our well educated young people who have been serving the cities of Detroit, Cincinnati, Fort Wayne and the larger Kentucky cities returning home to their roots and the mountains they love, reversing the exodus of our best and brightest that has gone on for generations, thus providing the area with even more ideas and visions. For, if one looks at the lists of graduating seniors from UK, EKU, Morehead, Cumberland, Union, Pikeville and others and note how many have Eastern Kentucky addresses, one would see that we are not the unmotivated, uneducated people that our reputation has portrayed us to be. We have simply been educating and training our young people for service to other regions, leaving only a fortunate few who have been able to land jobs with the local school systems or the few large companies in the area to go along with those that actually fit the stereotypes.

At which companies.

 

 

Just read that Pikeville Medical Center has 1,600 employees and received an award from the KY Chamber of Commerce for one of the 10 best places to work in Kentucky...

I know full well what the communities are like that you have stated that need assistance, but would you not agree that the first step towards improving the situation would be to want to help yourself first? That seems to be a lot of the problem, it is so easy to sit back and want someone else to take care of your problems instead of taking the government handout route. We have grown up in a society where a large portion of the people have that "government check is owed to me mentality". It has been breed into them from generation to generation to generation. Education and pride is the only way out of the situation that exists. Government assistance was designed to help those that may have encountered medical problems and just plain cannot work, or to help someone who may have lost the family breadwinner through a death or disability. I truely have compassion for those people. Those are the people that truely need and deserve help.

 

It does however burns me up to offer some of these very same people that a lot of you posters are feeling this undying sympathy for "A JOB" and have them just laugh in your face. Some feel they have it made just the way things are. They are very well satisfied with the way of life they have. Heck some feel, that they may not have everything, but it sure beats the heck out of working for a living.

 

What is truely embarrassing is to drive to some of the locations that you just mentioned and see the mountains of garbage in the yards, the junk cars sitting everywhere, and the just plain filth. I was always told by my parents that there is no shame in being poor, the real shame is in being dirty. BTW, you would probably be surprised at whom some of these people are, and of what their incomes may actually be. A lot of them probably have higher incomes than what some of you that are expressing the outrage of their living conditions. Eastern Kentucky as well as other distressed areas will never be any different than what they are until that big old word PRIDE comes into play.

 

I know I may sound hard and cruel, but I am not. I just have a hard time sugarcoating everything. I have many family members that I classify with this same mentality that I just emphasized. It is nothing that I am proud of , but it is just the plain honest truth.

 

I am a complete advocate of helping those in need, but not those they have no intentions of now or ever in the future of wanting to help themselves. It's just a plain fact of life that we deal with and accept. Get mad at me , say what you will, and rake me over the coals. It will not change part of the cold hard truth. Have any of you people ever been to a convenient store on check day and see the lines of people standing to buy handfuls of lottery tickets, with a carload of hungry, dirty children sitting out in the parking lot? People this is what has to change. Priorities have become all misconstrued. Some of these people will blow every dime they get on this type of foolishness rather than put clothes on their children's backs or put food on their children's table. The question I ask is how can you help people like this? The answer is you cant, if they dont want to help themselves.

 

Again, if we here in eastern Kentucky truely want to change our image, then it has to start on the insides of the individuals. You have to plain out detest poverty and poor living conditions and have the mentality that you are going to above all things respect yourself. Yes, there are many here (just like there is in every portion of the country) that truely needs help but there are so so many that would not change the manner in which they live if they were given a million dollars a year in government aid.

 

We dont need anymore government handouts. We as a culture of people, first need to change a few things within ourselves.

This is a true statement indeed. Yes people need to change .

Government uses the people and places to get votes.:walk:

This is a true statement indeed. Yes people need to change .

Many do change. Many work hard to gain an education. Many want a better life and will do what is necessary to get it. Unfortunately, for thousands, it means moving away. So, what is left?

Many do change. Many work hard to gain an education. Many want a better life and will do what is necessary to get it. Unfortunately, for thousands, it means moving away. So, what is left?

Opportunity and willingness, to affect change. If you're the type person, of a mindset of being "content", than no reason to wake in the morning and pursue a change. One can be financially secure and if they are "content", than status quo and the same, for those who struggle....change must be wanted, needed and a willingness to take advantage of opportunities, seized.

 

Every region, community and state, have areas that just stay stagnant in economic development, growth, jobs and leadership. They pay there taxes, do the same routine daily and that is all they know. Those who are willing to take a chance, pursue a better way....must seek it, as it often doesn't seek them.