Appalachia Group exists because there came a point where I just couldn't take the mocking, derision and stereotyping of Appalachian folks that I was reading all too often on DU. Believe me, it still exists. People can take only so much of being beaten down and I wanted to provide a space where Appalachian folks could feel good about themselves, explore some history and amazing folks, women and men, who have come from the hills.

This is not to say that the hard issues such as poverty, substandard education, lack of health care and jobs, etc. aren't topics for discussion because they most certainly are. It's so easy for some to just dismiss Appalachians as a bunch of "inbred morons, trailer trash, ignorant racist banjo-picking outhouse dwellers" (yes, these are actual pejoratives from posts to DU) without having even the least shred of knowledge or understanding of the region and its people. There's a thread on GD right now that I'm simply not going to participate in because I refuse to engage that kind of class warfare any longer, especially on a progressive site.

As with any oppressed class, women & children find themselves at the bottom of the pecking order. 60% of this nation's poor are single moms and their children and in the poorest areas of this country, such as Appalachia, that figure can be even higher. Even so, many women find themselves as heads of households, caring not only for their children but husbands, parents and extended family.

Below is a link to a piece that was done several years ago by Dateline called "Friends and Neighbors: How Do You choose Between Paying Your Bills and Feeding your Kids?" Anne Curry interviewed some young women from Appalachian Ohio (my neck of the woods) and the piece can either be viewed or read as text. It's just a reminder that in the war on poverty, women and children need us the most. Women don't need the constant battering that they aren't good mothers, that they're no-good sluts, welfare queens, "inbred morons" et al ad infinitum. Misogyny oppresses and misogyny kills, poor women most of all.

About halfway through my first reading of this piece I had to pause because I just couldn't stop crying. I recognized that face of poverty. I remember as a child finding the neighbor boy eating out of our dog's bowl because he was so hungry, the bullied kids folks called "dirty faces" lapping up a dropped ice cream from the sidewalk, the itty bitty children with rickets and rotten teeth, a vast, grey sea of faces ashen from malnutrition. Some 50 years after LBJ declared his War on Poverty, little has changed for many in Appalachia.

As you read/view "Friends and Neighbors" I hope we all will remember that these women are our neighbors and sisters. When we fight for a union, for health care, to eradicate poverty, for education, for reproductive choice, we fight for ourselves and for them. They are the faces in the mirror.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38382773/ns/dateline_nbc-america_now/t/friends-neighbors/#.U8_UP01OWM8

I'm so getting some of her music. She's on iTunes so I don't have even make on effort-- which almost feels dishonorable.

Great one Handpuppet

I haven't heard the recording, I have only the lyrics.

"I Am A Union Woman"
by Aunt Molly Jackson

I am a union woman
Just as Brave as I can be
I do not like the bosses
And the bosses don't like me.

Join the NMU, Join the NMU

I was raised in Old Kentucky
Kentucky born and bred,
But when I joined the union,
They called me a Russian Red.

Join the NMU...

This is the worst time on earth
That I have ever saw,
To get killed out by gun thugs
And framed up by the law.

Join the NMU...

If you want to join a union,
As strong as one can be
Join the dear old NMU
And come along with me.

Join the NMU...

We are many thousand strong,
And I am glad to say
We are getting stronger
And stronger every day.

Join the NMU...

The bosses ride fine horses
While we walk in the mud,
Their banner is the dollar sign,
Ours is striped with blood.

Join the NMU...

Edited to add: the NMU was the National Miners Union.

I love all kinds of music-- from heavy metal to folk, but there's a special place in my heart for activist music.

Original Post it did not show up in my notifications.

Love Aunt Molly Jackson and was glad to give that thread its 5th Rec and send it to the Greatest page where it will get more exposure.

Thank you, theHandpuppet for your efforts in that group and on DU3.

It is much appreciated by me.

Yeah, we try to keep relevant postings concentrated under a thread header, which is nice if you're following a particular topic but the drawback is folks don't receive notifications when more posts are made to that thread. I really don't know how to solve that problem so the only thing I can suggest is that folks drop by and check to see when the last post was made to any thread they were following. In the meanwhile, I'm cross-posting notifications from Appalachian Group to any other groups that might be interested in a particular topic. There's got to be an easier way. Anyone?

I guess by DU3 you mean DU in its current incarnation? Ha-ha! Sorry, I'm totally not up on the lingo like MIRT, DU3, meta, et al. Now that I'm a host I realize I'm confronted with an entire glossary of acronyms and terms with which I am totally unfamiliar. God, I'm such a rube. But thanks again for your kind words... for now I'm sticking with Groups rather than GD, for my own peace of mind. GD and I are a bad match.

Am I correct to assume from your avatar that you have connections to Cincinnati? Did you know that Lois Rosenthal has died? She was an incredible philanthropist and will be sorely missed.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/history/lives-remembered/2014/07/21/lois-rosenthal-passionate-cincinnati-patron-died/12944099/

Be well!