What better way to conclude this round of blogs than to write an update to my first blog, Diane Sawyer’s report “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains”? Here is a recap of that blog: Reporters followed four children: Erica, Shawn, Courtney, and Jeremy. Courtney lives with a lot of relatives in Kentucky and has to keep her clothes in a suitcase under her bed. Her mom has a drug problem and is trying to recuperate and get her GED by walking 2 hours to her class and 2 hours back, a 16 mile round trip! Shawn has to sleep in his truck to avoid all the thievery and dangers, but wishes to be the first in his family to earn his high school diploma and maybe even college. Jeremy had to give up his dreams when his girlfriend got pregnant; he had to accept a job working 3.5 miles underground in the coal mines.
The article also mentioned Dr. Edwin Smith, a dentist in Barbourville, Ky., and how he invested $150,000 of his own money to build a mobile dental clinic inside an 18-wheel truck because Sawyer described something caused “toothlessness” in central Appalachia. According to dentists, one of the main causes is Mountain Dew soda. With 50 percent more caffeine than Coke or Pepsi, Mountain Dew seems to be used as a kind of anti-depressant for children in this part of Appalachia. Smith travels the curvy roads of eastern Kentucky to offer free dental screenings and services to hundreds of children. They line up outside his mobile clinic with excitement.
“Dr. Smith says he's seen firsthand the results of neglect among these children. Teenagers have pulled their own teeth with pliers because of tooth pain, and he's treated 2-year-olds with up to 12 cavities in their baby teeth.” PepsiCo, the maker of Mountain Dew, reportedly has reached out to the dentist to support his service to these children with poor dental health. Kids drink it in school, at football games and before going to bed at night. Drinking the sugary soda loaded with caffeine often starts early, even as early as in babies’ bottles. Smith says, "Other sodas, too, but Mountain Dew is unique because it has a lot of sugar and a lot of acid. If you're taking a drink every 20 minutes, that's like bathing the teeth in it all day."
PepsiCo told ABC News that “it's preposterous to blame soft drinks for dental decay, saying that raisins and cookies stay in the mouth longer. They added that a balanced diet and proper dental hygiene like flossing and brushing teeth after meals and snacks should prevent decay.” One of the main problems for children in this area is that nearly 50% of them are enrolled in Medicaid, which is not
accepted by many dentists at all.
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=6845770&page=1
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6863173&page=1
Friday, April 22, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
My Impact on and from Appalachian
The first thing that comes to mind when I reflect on my time here at ASU is how I viewed others. When I met new people I immediately judged them based on how they talked and how they acted. Either they were "authentically Appalachian" or not. Why did I do this? I am still not sure, maybe just in my nature.
As time has gone by though, I have realized that it really isn't important because we are all here for different reasons. I am here at this university simply because it was closest to my hometown and I didn't want to move far away. For the first two years here, I lived in an apartment on King Street with other roommates that were from my hometown too. We spent many hours commenting on how weird everyone here was; it was just so different from our hometown, which is only in the neighboring county of Avery! Therefore, Appalachia is a part of who I am. But I have begun to understand that it is because many students, outside Appalachia, come to Appalachian State for different reasons.
Being here has educated me on the fact that our nation is very diverse; even though I watch the national news and TV programs that feature actors from all over the nation, it was still different seeing different people and interacting with them in person. Sometimes they would comment on how different I was, and it would baffle me because "duh" I am from closer to this university than they were! Maybe they are being educated too on the same matter.
So I have learned that my impact here may be that other people will debunk stereotypes of Appalachian people's being ignorant or toothless or "hillbilly" or whatever they had in mind, just as they will debunk my stereotypes of them, whether they be Northern, Western, or foreign.. They see that there indeed are "mountain people" coming to college to get an education, and are perfectly capable of doing so. Before I learned Spanish, I view Hispanic people as "oh they can't speak English, they are strange" and would not respect them or their opinions. Today I know they are fellow human beings with valid thoughts. We are all human beings. I hope that in the future, our interactions and hard work of increasing our knowledge and technology will be able to destroy all the stereotypes we have of each other.
As time has gone by though, I have realized that it really isn't important because we are all here for different reasons. I am here at this university simply because it was closest to my hometown and I didn't want to move far away. For the first two years here, I lived in an apartment on King Street with other roommates that were from my hometown too. We spent many hours commenting on how weird everyone here was; it was just so different from our hometown, which is only in the neighboring county of Avery! Therefore, Appalachia is a part of who I am. But I have begun to understand that it is because many students, outside Appalachia, come to Appalachian State for different reasons.
Being here has educated me on the fact that our nation is very diverse; even though I watch the national news and TV programs that feature actors from all over the nation, it was still different seeing different people and interacting with them in person. Sometimes they would comment on how different I was, and it would baffle me because "duh" I am from closer to this university than they were! Maybe they are being educated too on the same matter.
So I have learned that my impact here may be that other people will debunk stereotypes of Appalachian people's being ignorant or toothless or "hillbilly" or whatever they had in mind, just as they will debunk my stereotypes of them, whether they be Northern, Western, or foreign.. They see that there indeed are "mountain people" coming to college to get an education, and are perfectly capable of doing so. Before I learned Spanish, I view Hispanic people as "oh they can't speak English, they are strange" and would not respect them or their opinions. Today I know they are fellow human beings with valid thoughts. We are all human beings. I hope that in the future, our interactions and hard work of increasing our knowledge and technology will be able to destroy all the stereotypes we have of each other.
Friday, April 1, 2011
English Language in Appalachia
In High Mountains Rising, Michael Montgomery did a great job writing his chapter English Language, emphasizing the language used in Appalachia. I mean, I have read a few other articles about the words used in these mountains however this has been the best one I have come across. I feel like his words really described how my family and people from the surrounding counties speak! On top, of that I learned quite a lot, so I wanted to make some comments on what I found to be true with me, what I learned, and what I can add to his point. Plus, I am a Communication Sciences & Disorders undergraduate, so language and dialects is my milieu one could say (see? We mountain people are capable of knowing big words).
First I learned that Appalachian English is not really a remnant of Elizabethan dialect, even though I would like for that to be true so we have more bragging rights. Many people consider the dialect inferior and “an impediment to social mobility and educational progress” (page 147). This is something that has always irked me and flat out hurt my feelings. I personally had no problems with my accent until I got to ASU. Even at my community college, everyone (save a few Marion, NC people) had the same mountain “speech”.
However, when I came to ASU, I already knew how some students talked and was well aware that many students came from different areas in the nation, so I was prepared to run into that. It hit home the most when I worked at Appalachian Fund. I got to where I despised the job because most of the ASU alumni I reached on the telephone would question me about my heritage or have some comment to make on the way I talked (if I was lucky, I reached a person with a southern accent and they would be a joy to talk to, even if they gave no donation). None of the other employees had the same accent as me so I remained alone until I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and quit. The funny thing is that when I leave campus and go into the part of Boone with fast food restaurants, I come across all kinds of people with mountain accents! So I feel that we are still in a trend where people with more Standard English accents go to obtain higher education while those with Appalachian accents end up with blue collar jobs or work in fast food.
I also wanted to comment on some of the vocabulary that Montgomery mentions. I actually use a some of these and can add some more words to the list, however some of the words I have never heard. Where I live, on a daily or weekly basis my relatives use these examples: bawl, green beans, hull (but more as in the shell, not to shell), you’uns, poke, skillet, arm load, little piece, adding the prefix a- on verbs (seldom if not often, though), ain’t, was with plural subjects ("you/we was outside"), ill (bad-tempered), creel (to twist, e.g. “I creeled my ankle”), and sop (gravy). Now these next examples I don’t use, but my mother from the neighboring county has used or at least heard of them: galluses [“suspenders”], swan/swanny (“to swear”), palings [“fence posts”], fit and holp as the past tense of fight and help, knowed and blowed. Some examples I can add are cuckle [“to steal somebody’s girlfriend”] (possibly and Avery County term), and light [“to sit still somewhere/ stop moving around], light into somebody [“to let someone have it”].
I also want to elaborate on a vowel on page 156. Number 5 says “modification of the “long i” to ah in different contexts, so that my right side rhymes with mah raht sahd; wire rhymes with either car or war.” This may be true but more so with the more southern states like Alabama or Louisiana I am guessing. Here in this area of Appalachia, the vowel is actually more between the long I and “ah”, in the phonetic alphabet it has its own symbol, /a/, instead of /aI/ and /ɑ/. In addition, it is actually the same vowel used in Boston for “ar” so with the /a/ vowel, park the car in the garage sounds like pike the kie in the garige. The best way I can explain is in person though, so if you would like to know more ask me in class!
There is too much that can be discussed in this blog about English Language in Appalachia. It is a fascinating subject to me, as well as all of our nation’s dialects and all the world’s languages! It would be nice to eradicate the world’s language barriers and rid of all the prejudices that arise therein but it is also nice to have a special dialect that you belong to.
First I learned that Appalachian English is not really a remnant of Elizabethan dialect, even though I would like for that to be true so we have more bragging rights. Many people consider the dialect inferior and “an impediment to social mobility and educational progress” (page 147). This is something that has always irked me and flat out hurt my feelings. I personally had no problems with my accent until I got to ASU. Even at my community college, everyone (save a few Marion, NC people) had the same mountain “speech”.
However, when I came to ASU, I already knew how some students talked and was well aware that many students came from different areas in the nation, so I was prepared to run into that. It hit home the most when I worked at Appalachian Fund. I got to where I despised the job because most of the ASU alumni I reached on the telephone would question me about my heritage or have some comment to make on the way I talked (if I was lucky, I reached a person with a southern accent and they would be a joy to talk to, even if they gave no donation). None of the other employees had the same accent as me so I remained alone until I finally couldn’t stand it anymore and quit. The funny thing is that when I leave campus and go into the part of Boone with fast food restaurants, I come across all kinds of people with mountain accents! So I feel that we are still in a trend where people with more Standard English accents go to obtain higher education while those with Appalachian accents end up with blue collar jobs or work in fast food.
I also wanted to comment on some of the vocabulary that Montgomery mentions. I actually use a some of these and can add some more words to the list, however some of the words I have never heard. Where I live, on a daily or weekly basis my relatives use these examples: bawl, green beans, hull (but more as in the shell, not to shell), you’uns, poke, skillet, arm load, little piece, adding the prefix a- on verbs (seldom if not often, though), ain’t, was with plural subjects ("you/we was outside"), ill (bad-tempered), creel (to twist, e.g. “I creeled my ankle”), and sop (gravy). Now these next examples I don’t use, but my mother from the neighboring county has used or at least heard of them: galluses [“suspenders”], swan/swanny (“to swear”), palings [“fence posts”], fit and holp as the past tense of fight and help, knowed and blowed. Some examples I can add are cuckle [“to steal somebody’s girlfriend”] (possibly and Avery County term), and light [“to sit still somewhere/ stop moving around], light into somebody [“to let someone have it”].
I also want to elaborate on a vowel on page 156. Number 5 says “modification of the “long i” to ah in different contexts, so that my right side rhymes with mah raht sahd; wire rhymes with either car or war.” This may be true but more so with the more southern states like Alabama or Louisiana I am guessing. Here in this area of Appalachia, the vowel is actually more between the long I and “ah”, in the phonetic alphabet it has its own symbol, /a/, instead of /aI/ and /ɑ/. In addition, it is actually the same vowel used in Boston for “ar” so with the /a/ vowel, park the car in the garage sounds like pike the kie in the garige. The best way I can explain is in person though, so if you would like to know more ask me in class!
There is too much that can be discussed in this blog about English Language in Appalachia. It is a fascinating subject to me, as well as all of our nation’s dialects and all the world’s languages! It would be nice to eradicate the world’s language barriers and rid of all the prejudices that arise therein but it is also nice to have a special dialect that you belong to.
Friday, March 18, 2011
My People's Values
I just finished reading “Appalachian Values” written by Loyal Jones, former director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College. Being from Appalachia, I can relate to most of the values he lists (religion, individualism, neighborliness and hospitality, familism, personalism, love of place, modesty, sense of beauty, and sense of humor). I believe Mr. Jones “hit the nail on the head” in his description of Appalachian people.
One of my first reactions after reading his article was, “wow I didn’t have to look up a single word he wrote!” It bothers me to come across a word I am unfamiliar with, so I have my dictionary nearby to look up words. This article, however, did not have any hard words. One thing I can say about Appalachian people, or at least myself, is that we write how we talk (not verbatim; I don’t include words like “ain’t” and “you’ns” when writing for a scholarly assignments). I suppose Loyal Jones didn’t feel the need to use any pompous words, making his writing a breeze to read and his point come across well.
Jones’s first point is religion, and I agree with most everything he stated. Mountaineers have deep roots in faith, which has shaped the mountaineer culture. From the viewpoint of nonbelievers, religion is a “hindrance to social progress”. However, from the Appalachians’ viewpoint, social progress (if there is any at all) is only in this life and is not worth sacrificing their faith. I personally am also a Baptist like the ones that Jones refers to. I believe earth “shall pass away” and relate to his next point about accepting Jesus as a personal savior.
Next is individualism and pride. One example I have of this is probably my dad. He is more characteristic of Appalachian people than me! He is very self reliant and hardly asks anyone for help unless it is something outside his knowledge, such as computers and technology. I see satisfaction in being able to do tasks myself.
I see neighborliness and hospitality every day here in the Avery/Mitchell area where I live. Just like Jones says in the article about the host saying, “Just reach and get anything you want,” so does my family and my girlfriend’s family when they have big dinners or cookouts. Another example I can think of is when I went to my girlfriend’s great uncle’s funeral. On the way we picked up her 60-year old 3rd cousin to go with us. When we came back that night and dropped her off, at 9 something o’clock, she asked each one of us to come in for a while. Now she probably wasn’t serious, just as none of us wanted to go in either. She was being hospitable and polite.
As for personalism, we Appalachians do care a great deal about our relationships with people, some more than others. This is important because here in the mountains we see and interact with the same people daily. Whether going to a local restaurant, grocery store, or bank, etc, chances are that we will be waited on by people we know and/or have known our whole lives.
Another important part of being Appalachian is knowing our way around (I can’t say much, I don’t have a good sense of direction). However most mountaineers know most of the roads, lanes, and “hollars” in the county, not to mention four-wheeler trails! Our way of giving directions can be confusing to the passersby.
We are modest in that we don’t shout the stereotypical “well I never!” when somebody puts their elbows on the table or forgets which fork to use. Like Jones says, we don’t “put on airs.” We realize nobody is perfect and that allows us to be at peace and be happy with ourselves.
Our sense of beauty is in our culture, our language, building things, and simply how we interact with others. For example, it is richer to us eating a simple homemade supper at home with family than going out to an exquisite restaurant dining with unfamiliar people.
Finally we have a sense of humor. Probably because we can aim the target of the jokes at ourselves is what makes our sense of humor seem more harmless and everybody laughs. I believe that in Appalachia it would be harder to find a person so mature that he or she can hardly laugh at anything besides a political cartoon.
I really enjoyed this article because I felt it had a lot to say about who I am and about the culture of my people. Therefore, reflecting upon it was very easy.
One of my first reactions after reading his article was, “wow I didn’t have to look up a single word he wrote!” It bothers me to come across a word I am unfamiliar with, so I have my dictionary nearby to look up words. This article, however, did not have any hard words. One thing I can say about Appalachian people, or at least myself, is that we write how we talk (not verbatim; I don’t include words like “ain’t” and “you’ns” when writing for a scholarly assignments). I suppose Loyal Jones didn’t feel the need to use any pompous words, making his writing a breeze to read and his point come across well.
Jones’s first point is religion, and I agree with most everything he stated. Mountaineers have deep roots in faith, which has shaped the mountaineer culture. From the viewpoint of nonbelievers, religion is a “hindrance to social progress”. However, from the Appalachians’ viewpoint, social progress (if there is any at all) is only in this life and is not worth sacrificing their faith. I personally am also a Baptist like the ones that Jones refers to. I believe earth “shall pass away” and relate to his next point about accepting Jesus as a personal savior.
Next is individualism and pride. One example I have of this is probably my dad. He is more characteristic of Appalachian people than me! He is very self reliant and hardly asks anyone for help unless it is something outside his knowledge, such as computers and technology. I see satisfaction in being able to do tasks myself.
I see neighborliness and hospitality every day here in the Avery/Mitchell area where I live. Just like Jones says in the article about the host saying, “Just reach and get anything you want,” so does my family and my girlfriend’s family when they have big dinners or cookouts. Another example I can think of is when I went to my girlfriend’s great uncle’s funeral. On the way we picked up her 60-year old 3rd cousin to go with us. When we came back that night and dropped her off, at 9 something o’clock, she asked each one of us to come in for a while. Now she probably wasn’t serious, just as none of us wanted to go in either. She was being hospitable and polite.
As for personalism, we Appalachians do care a great deal about our relationships with people, some more than others. This is important because here in the mountains we see and interact with the same people daily. Whether going to a local restaurant, grocery store, or bank, etc, chances are that we will be waited on by people we know and/or have known our whole lives.
Another important part of being Appalachian is knowing our way around (I can’t say much, I don’t have a good sense of direction). However most mountaineers know most of the roads, lanes, and “hollars” in the county, not to mention four-wheeler trails! Our way of giving directions can be confusing to the passersby.
We are modest in that we don’t shout the stereotypical “well I never!” when somebody puts their elbows on the table or forgets which fork to use. Like Jones says, we don’t “put on airs.” We realize nobody is perfect and that allows us to be at peace and be happy with ourselves.
Our sense of beauty is in our culture, our language, building things, and simply how we interact with others. For example, it is richer to us eating a simple homemade supper at home with family than going out to an exquisite restaurant dining with unfamiliar people.
Finally we have a sense of humor. Probably because we can aim the target of the jokes at ourselves is what makes our sense of humor seem more harmless and everybody laughs. I believe that in Appalachia it would be harder to find a person so mature that he or she can hardly laugh at anything besides a political cartoon.
I really enjoyed this article because I felt it had a lot to say about who I am and about the culture of my people. Therefore, reflecting upon it was very easy.
Monday, February 28, 2011
More Pics for "Piddling with Fiddles" post
Here is my grandma with Raymond Fairchild
This is my other late grandma with Bill Monroe!
Friday, February 25, 2011
On Mountaintop and Human Decency Removal
After all the reading I did last week and watching the Black Diamond video on Friday, I have formed several opinions regarding not only what is happening to our land, but what we people are doing to each other. I have a lot to say in this blog post, probably more than I can remember to type in this sitting. If any of you reading this has any comments, feel free to mention them in class because maybe we will learn something!
First, after reading all the horrifying tales of coal mining and what the miners have gone through in our nation’s history, I was shocked that we would let something like the UMW miners’ uprising in West Virginia happen. The Civil War should have been a reminder to those oppressing the miners that you cannot treat people, your fellow human beings, so poorly and expect them to accept it for long. I know I wouldn’t. Even I complain about a certain job, working for millionaires for 25 cents above minimum wage after being there for 3 years; but that’s nothing compared to how I felt about men risking their lives underground, not seeing their families, for meager pay and having to spend it at a company-owned store where everything is overpriced! What human oppression. That leads me to the topic of empathy and being considerate as a person, which I will get into in a bit. First, though, I wanted to talk about how I feel about coal mining in general.
I am sure, as Tim/Darrell said in his blog, there must be some way to phase out the disastrous process of mining, just like there was a way to avoid all of it in the first place- not having electricity at all, and not needing all the coal in the first place (only hypothetically speaking of course). As I watched the video, one of the things I thought of is, “look at what we have done to ourselves.” I mean, yes we have great technology and have accomplished very much with it, but at what cost? We are dependent on electricity every day, and therefore we are dependent on coal until we use the same technology to figure out another reliable source of energy (fossil fuels will not be here forever). Even cutting down on electricity would slow the progression of blowing up the mountains, and that is better than nothing.
Now for empathy and being considerate: as a human society, it is hard to label ourselves as a whole. As I was reading our homework on a library computer, I was also eavesdropping on a “California-sounding ‘dude’” with a camouflaged sun visor go on and on about something stupid, and a girl came up to him asking him if he was using his computer (the computers were full at the time, even I had to sweet talk a frozen computer that was vacant to work for me so I could have one too). He said no, and she kept asking, “Are you sure, are you sure?” That is human decency. That is the majority of what I see in my daily life. That is how we treat people in my town. Even if she was thinking, “you stupid loudmouth moron, sitting at the computer not even using it,” she was being considerate and polite. Now, let’s take a company “big wheel”, as my mom calls them, at the top of the company, aiding in the decision to blow somebody’s mountain up to get the precious “black diamonds” that are buried underneath. Is that being considerate? Is that human decency? Is that respect? Being polite?
First, after reading all the horrifying tales of coal mining and what the miners have gone through in our nation’s history, I was shocked that we would let something like the UMW miners’ uprising in West Virginia happen. The Civil War should have been a reminder to those oppressing the miners that you cannot treat people, your fellow human beings, so poorly and expect them to accept it for long. I know I wouldn’t. Even I complain about a certain job, working for millionaires for 25 cents above minimum wage after being there for 3 years; but that’s nothing compared to how I felt about men risking their lives underground, not seeing their families, for meager pay and having to spend it at a company-owned store where everything is overpriced! What human oppression. That leads me to the topic of empathy and being considerate as a person, which I will get into in a bit. First, though, I wanted to talk about how I feel about coal mining in general.
I am sure, as Tim/Darrell said in his blog, there must be some way to phase out the disastrous process of mining, just like there was a way to avoid all of it in the first place- not having electricity at all, and not needing all the coal in the first place (only hypothetically speaking of course). As I watched the video, one of the things I thought of is, “look at what we have done to ourselves.” I mean, yes we have great technology and have accomplished very much with it, but at what cost? We are dependent on electricity every day, and therefore we are dependent on coal until we use the same technology to figure out another reliable source of energy (fossil fuels will not be here forever). Even cutting down on electricity would slow the progression of blowing up the mountains, and that is better than nothing.
Now for empathy and being considerate: as a human society, it is hard to label ourselves as a whole. As I was reading our homework on a library computer, I was also eavesdropping on a “California-sounding ‘dude’” with a camouflaged sun visor go on and on about something stupid, and a girl came up to him asking him if he was using his computer (the computers were full at the time, even I had to sweet talk a frozen computer that was vacant to work for me so I could have one too). He said no, and she kept asking, “Are you sure, are you sure?” That is human decency. That is the majority of what I see in my daily life. That is how we treat people in my town. Even if she was thinking, “you stupid loudmouth moron, sitting at the computer not even using it,” she was being considerate and polite. Now, let’s take a company “big wheel”, as my mom calls them, at the top of the company, aiding in the decision to blow somebody’s mountain up to get the precious “black diamonds” that are buried underneath. Is that being considerate? Is that human decency? Is that respect? Being polite?
Friday, February 18, 2011
World News Blogs
Here are a couple of World news blogs I found (they may slow your system down while they load).
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/
http://blogs.reuters.com/global/
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/
http://blogs.reuters.com/global/
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