When I woke up this morning, I thought “I guess it’s time to read the WSJ and get my daily dose of bad news “ before I go to the FP to hopefully find something a little more balanced. Reading this story was like a cup of hope. I have a son who has struggled with oxy, but is now clean… so can identify with how those people feel, and God bless them for showing us how to pick yourselves up by the bootstraps!!
It is one of the scariest things imaginable to have a loved one struggle with a medical drug that was pushed as "safe" and from which billions were made by ghouls who feasted upon the misery of their victims. You must be very proud of your son's courage and strength. You are not alone.
Good Morning Tom, I also read the WSJ and TFP each morning. I also have a son who has/is struggling with drugs. Your story inspires me. God bless you and the Kentuckyians who are turning their lives around.
People don't realize this, but the recovery rate for people to kick an addiction permanently is actually pretty high; it's astonishing and a real testament to people healing. Congratulations to your son, and may God bless him in his recovery.
Dear Mr. Cashman, Congratulations. Naturally I lay the blame at the feet of the vile leftists. When one realizes I'm responsible for myself the road to recovery is greatly shortened.
I hope we can hear more about this town and others like it. Goes to show how strong Americans are, and how we can come out of the worst times. God bless Hazard.
I couldn't help thinking, as I read this, about the people who originally came west over the Appalachians. They built their communities from scratch, this same way.
Why is this hopeful? Because it’s about small people making small incremental improvements to their lives. This is how you change. You start with yourself. Then expand out slowly. It’s what Jordan Peterson says. It’s what Dave Ramsey says. Two of the most listened to people in North America.
Its certainly fun to rail at the big fat problems with our federal governments and institutions. But ultimately we all need to take personal responsibility for our lives. We all have to make small daily choices. That’s where we experience change the most.
that's pretty much it. I came to these ideas studying the opioid epidemic and the idea that we could eradicate all pain with one pill. A magic bullet for all that ails us. we're still paying for the unintended consequences of that. It's the small, daily stuff, local stuff that creates healthy, lasting social change. Hence the title to my last book, The Least of Us, in which I began to tell similar stories, and from which this FP piece grew.... Thank you for the wise comment!
You wrote a great story that I found really heartwarming. Despite challenges and obstacles, these people are picking up the pieces and making something beautiful and good out of what was relegated to the trash, so to speak. I lived in rural Indiana for 12 years of my life, and it was a rundown town decimated by the loss of the steel mills and other manufacturing. After some hardworking people got grants and put in elbow grease, the downtown is thriving again and bustling in a way I never saw while I lived there. Your story is one of the most hopeful things and was just what I needed while I'm sick with a head cold today. Thank you Sam.
Those are great stories. problem is, they're not self-evident. you have to dig to find them. They need to be told more often. Thanks for your comment....
Sam: Thank you very much for what you have done to tell us these stories. Dreamland is one of the few books I have read multiple times and recommend to anyone willing to hear.
It's been a minute since I've been to Hazard. I'm glad to hear good news. Tyler Childress' "Nose on the Grindstone" has been the anthem of that region for a while. He's from a town not too far from there.
Kentucky recentliy also passed a law authorizing research into Iboga/Ibogaine for opoid addiction. It's not without risks, but it works well, and most addicts--with the Fentanyl China is supplying, in what I suppose is a reverse Opium War, across the border Biden refuses to treat as his legal responsibility--die young.
I count myself as one of those who truly believes that freedom and personal responsibility are the answers to nearly all questions. They are harder answers in the short term. It's much easier to remain a child, and ask other people to solve your problems for you.
But here is the thing: the people who want to solve other peoples problems are usually basket cases themselves. They are emotionally dysfunctional. Anyone who wants to control others, or tell them what to do, is someone who themselves has a lot of growing up left to do, a lot of ground to cover before they are fully human.
So yes, life is hard in the short run. But it gets worse if you expect the world to solve your problems. And I really believe that responsible and FREE people in groups are BY FAR the most coherent, useful, and sustainably reliable force for social and moral and spiritual growth possible for human beings. This is the core idea of what is called Conservatism in this country. It is to be contrasted with the idea that emotionally disconnected economic elites KNOW BETTER, and should have the right and power to infantilize and control populations, and to pound them into whatever shape their puerile imagination think fit. That is the essence of Leftism: control, ignorance, violence, and emotional retardation.
Even worse is a government which has now pushed the mob aside and has entered the drug market along with numbers and protection rackets. I suppose prostitution is next.
If you think about it, making drugs illegal has the direct effect of making the government a weeder out of the weak, and a de facto ally in the creation and maintenace of drug distribution monopolies, particularly wherever corruption is possible. Most of Mexico is corrupt for this reason.
I side with William F. Buckley in his idea that all drugs should be legalized, at least at the Federal level, and how they should be dispensed, if at all, is a State level question. I personally think all should be available in specific places to anyone. What people do in their free time is really no concern of the rest of us, provided they hurt no one. Heroin addicts often become thieves and dependents, and this happens even though the drug is theoretically illegal.
Put another way, we have not won the War on Drugs in the 40-50 years we have been fighting it, but we have created the Mexican cartels, large amounts of organized crime, the first wave of civil rights nullification (which were succeeded by the Patriot Act, making the war on drugs plausibly a form of conditioning us to stop respecting the Constitution as written), and right now at no benefit to any of us. Large swathes of our nation are addicts. Most rural areas are filled will pill poppers and drug injection.
I don't think hard drugs should be available at the corner grocery store, but I think should put the illegal drug monopolies out of business by creating competition for them, and destroying the profitability.
And as regards psychedelics specifically, within contained contexts, they manifestly work wonders not possible--or at least probable--in any other way. Steve Jobs, as one example, long credited his own acid experiences with his creativity.
Conservatism to me, is about freedom. It is "good fences make good neighbors", but with the obvious qualification that I am a neighbor too, and I am a better neighbor if I am leaving you alone.
Do you actually BELIEVE that legalization will cripple the illegal drug trade? Do you really believe that ANY government is organically CAPABLE of running a legal trade in drugs? Just look at California as a case study. They legalized marijuana in hopes of eliminating, or at least MINIMIZING, the illegal marketplace. But, being government, they just couldn't let things go, and immediately started regulating and taxing the new pot marketplace until it began to show signs of collapsing.
As a result, the illegal trade is booming, NOT collapsing, because they can offer the drug at lower prices! If they decided to do the same for other drugs you would be able to hear the illegal vendors cheering! It would only increase the street prices because the reregulated drugs will be so expensive and people, being people, would opt out for the cheaper high.
This is the nature of government, so you independents, beware!
Dear Mr. Moore, Look at the alcohol model in the minimally regulated free America. Look back fifty years.
Does anyone recall the blue laws? In our town and county those folks who consumed alcohol but weren't good at preplanning and were caught by surprise Sunday morning had a problem.
Their problem was mitigated by our town fathers. The council rescinded the offensive laws and enterprising folks opened up gitNsplits right on the boundary/town limit road. Real Estate values rise and businesses thrive. The town was revitalized by that one shrewd move.
I won't claim to have thought through all the details: I am speaking from a high level perspective, based on my principles.
But if California were not filled with idiots it would not be California. These are concrete policy questions that require the same attention to detail as military logistics, but my belief is that policies could be found that accomplish my intent, which is greater freedom and less organized crime.
Well then, I won't rain on your parade, so to speak. But thoughtful policies just do not emanate from a legislature that goes with the easy way out on everything else. People thought that the income tax amendment was a good idea, while the naysayers were worried that the tax might even go up to 10%! The same goes for Social Security and Medicare. Let's just face it, government just cannot handle nuance and, as Thomas Sewel calls it "Stage One Thinking" rules the day.
Its interesting that you would think a total ban on the sale and use of many drugs is not a greater imposition by government than their legalization. I would think many people in jail for things like simple possession would disagree. They are literally looking at cages built by and watched over by agents of government.
Research Colorado's legalization story. Cartels come in because of the high grade pot. That situation has gotten worse. In fact, you would hard pressed to find any law enforcement personnel who support the legalization. Although CO said they stop any of they're legal drugs from going across state lines, the financial burden on sparsely populated Western Nebraska is unbearable. The drug war failed. Tens of thousands of Mexicans dies because of it. What's the answer. I really don't know. But no one has found it yet. See what Portland and Oregon are now facing and trying to correct.
In Oregon they have not just endorsed drug use but criminality generally, Nobody, certainly not me, is advocating for letting drug users act in patently anti-social ways.
And Colorado in effect created a monolopolistic oasis in which high quality product was legal there, but unavailable by law around it. If good pot were legal in Nebraska at least that set of oroblems would disappear.
These are policy issues worthy of intelligent debate, but in my view we need to elimjnate the moral element. Everybody wants to get high in some way. It may be singing in church, but we all need it.
The Roman historian Sallust stated, "Most seek not freedom, only a fair master".
You have touched on the problems with a fair master. First, there is no such thing, you are dependent. Second, with a master you have someone to blame, therefore, you are a victim.
Learned helplessness is at the root of many of our problems.
Fentanyl keeps coming because it kills many of the people who would not vote blue. The government in San Francisco wastes 1.5 million dollars to build one toilet in the city and does nothing but give out money to the con men and women who further dehumanize addicts. It’s time to go after the big detox scams. If anybody can Senator Paul could.
Sam Quinones is one of the best journalists & authors of his generation. Buy & read his work: insightful & encouraging despite tough topics. Thanks, Sam!
I second the motion. Sam is an American treasure. From his recent book I learned that the recipe for meth changed about a decade ago from a pseudoephedrine based formula to a new type called p2p meth, using Chinese manufactured precursors. The new p2p meth causes psychosis, which is why so many of the homeless addicts you see now appear schizophrenic. It’s because the new p2p meth actually does induce paranoid schizophrenia and instead of addicts just becoming physically unhealthy, they now also become extremely crazy.
Such a great and hopeful read. In my neck of the woods, the public policy (or failed social experiment) of Permanent Supportive Housing has taken hold. Just down the street from me are plans to build 100 affordable housing units, many for families. Of the 100 units, 48 will be set aside for individuals who suffer from addiction or mental health issues, or both. They will be given a place to stay, fully paid for, with no strings attached; no requirement to enter treatment, seek counseling or get clean. If I were one of the families thinking of moving here, I would think twice about subjecting my young children to this environment.
We have had numerous meetings with the local police who warn us that they have seen this type of housing attract dealers into the neighborhood and the drug crisis actually becomes worse, not better.
I am heartened to read about the town of Hazard and to see a different type of approach take hold with so many positive outcomes.
They did that in Boise. $6 or $7 million to house drunks and junkies and they don’t have to do anything. Because I guess to require they get clean is just too mean.
And if you object to this approach, you are vilified. I wish The Free Press would do a deep dive on Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). Even the Mayor of San Francisco is moving toward treatment as a better option. San Francisco and maybe all of California has been leading the charge on PSH and spending heavily on it. Yet homelessness continues to sky rocket and overdose deaths have not come down at all.
This will sound harsh but, I don’t care one whit over OD deaths. I think people should get one free narcan but after that, if they haven’t woken up and gotten clean, then they deserve what happens.
I too am from Boston where I consider this death by housing. The opposite of addiction is connection and this “free” housing has caused more deaths by isolation.
As someone in long term recovery from alcoholism, I think that the recovery world is very institutionalized and also focuses on groups that are outside the mainstream of a community. You kind of end up as an 'other' and outside of society in a way. Reading this made me think about how recovery should also be focused on reconnecting the addict to community, but also to think in terms of recovery for a community. How do we rebuild community? Not via big govt programs (but govt can be helpful) but rather via bottoms up efforts? Many communities are ravaged by addiction and need help. Thanks for this article, it's a gem.
Key point about community: I’m an herbalist, and was taught that when you take a whole plant, like an opium poppy, and refine and strip it of everything except the constituent that makes it opium, you have taken that chemical out of the safety of its plant community- away from the other parts of it that make it a living, balanced being. And when a person then takes that product, it has the same effect on them- it takes the part of them seeking to get high away from all of the other parts of themselves that make up their whole, living, balanced humanity.
The cure is connection, community, acceptance of your full humanity, and grace.
When an entire community has experienced that kind of stripping away of self and disconnecting, the key to restoration is making healing a group/community experience. Recovery groups are a wonderful example of how this works, but things like employing recovering addicts in local businesses where they are re-connecting to people who are not in recovery is a great next step to go beyond just being with those in recovery.
Start small. So many of the ways we try to 'fix' things are done at a national or state level. Trying to fix it for millions at once. Which doesn't often work. I think starting smaller, neighborhoods, churches, districts. Groups that already have something in common. As those smaller groups get string, you connect them so they can built a good support network.
A lot of our social trust issues are broad. Because this is a diverse country. But your building or block or small town or neighborhood is more likely to have connective tissue that can help break down trust issues.
Diversity isn't a strength. In fact, I just watched a lecture by prof who cited a meta-analysis of the 87 studies that have been done on diversity, and guess what? There is no benefit, only problems, according to their own 'science'. One wonders why 'diversity is our strength' is a motto for so many? Read Howard Putnam's Bowling Alone for serious academic work on how mass immigration destroys social trust, cohesion and civic institutions. "The science' tells us that multi-cultural societies will always be low trust...
Diversity means many things. Even in a fairly homogenous population, there is diversity. We are not pod people all acting in concert. Diversity allows for more new ideas and ways of thinking and being. Yes, diversity can also cause clashes. Especially if there are parts that are diametrically opposed. But that doesn't mean we push anyone out that isn't the 'same' as we are. This is actually what is happening on the left, despite all of their calls for diversity. They are trying to push out or destroy any kind of diversity in thinking.
Just as an example, lets look at Japan. A very homogenous culture that has stagnated in the last 20-30 years. Their culture tries to stamp down on people who do not conform. Which causes people with new ideas to remain silent. Does that mean Japan should just let in anyone who wants to come and give them free reign over culture? No. But it could mean that Japan might do well to consider new ways of doing things to adopt as part of their culture and society.
We don't have to let the left take control of the definitions of things and then totally denigrate that thing because the left uses it poorly. Diversity is an important part of growth and change. Sometimes for good sometimes for bad. Even nature understands diversity, which is why most animals do not reproduce by cloning. The mixing of differences can lead to new strength. In terms of society, I think the biggest issue is that populations that are working together need to share some common core things. For America it should be things based around what the country is founded on. Broadly speaking "Freedom". And right now that is probably one of the biggest issues. So many people here that don't actually like what this country is supposed to stand for and thus they are trying to change it.
Read this article to see how the goal posts are being moved in light of the failure of diversity to deliver it's touted benefits. Turns out just having diversity isn't enough. It takes a program and education and brainwashing and basically "re-education" to make it work. Lol. Marxist lowlifes always have the same solution - people like me need re-education. No thanks, I have a fucking genius IQ, I'm smarter than most of the dingbats pushing this crap, and I'm better informed. https://hbr.org/2020/11/getting-serious-about-diversity-enough-already-with-the-business-case
Do you have any valid and reliable analyses of this value of diversity you've asserted (without any proof)? I get, you think it's great - who cares? You can be as diverse in your life if you want to. Go move to the Chinatown near you, see how you like that. Note I'm not calling for ethnic or racial homogeneity specifically. I'm just calling out the utter BS that "diversity is our strength" is as an idea. It's not. Especially wrt mass immigration from non Western societies with people who don't share our basic values and culture. Go read Putnam's Bowling Alone and actually learn something about the massive social destruction our love affair with diversity has wrought on our society. If you read it, you will not be nearly as sanguine about all of this. Also, I have no problem with the meaning of the word. I mean it exactly as the Left uses it. What do you mean when you say it?
Somehow we've become far too infatuated with diversity and shifted to the worship of diversity for its own sake. And this has lead to a push for complete segregation of races. This approach is the opposite of what we should cultivate...we need to look to America's heritage as a "melting pot". This is the real source of our strengths. It is America's success as a melting pot that has given us our real wins against racial, religious and ethnic discrimination. Further, our melting pot has led to the sharing and combining of the best ideas and practices from differing cultures, thus creating and nourishing one of the worlds most innovative economies.
But care needs to be taken. We no longer have a majority religion as a common bond. So now, to assure unity, a sense of common welfare and community, its critical we maintain and encourage use of a common language.
Due to obsession with diversity and misplaced infatuation with multi-culturalism, we provide free taxpayer-funded translators for just about every language at a huge cost. Instead we should be offering free, possibly even compulsory*, English classes for immigrants to facilitate their integration and involvement in their new communities. Learning English would increase job opportunities for non-english speaking immigrants and spped integration of subsequent generations.
Sorry I've gone off on a tangent. But I think recognition of the value of our melting pot heritage is critical if local supportive communities are to ever emerge within drug and crime ridden multi-cultural, multi-racial big city neighborhoods.
[*Note:a number of other countries require that new immigrants learn basic language skills as a prerequisite for citizenship.]
All nations are formed via some kind of colonialism and occupation, by 'others'. That we were formed and built by 'immigrants' has nothing to do with what our immigration policy should be today. The issue you are talking about without using the word is 'assimilation' and the idea behind it is simple. You become us within 3 generations. Via intermarriage, adoption of our language, integration into our cultural institutions etc. Nothing about that means you can't keep your native tongue for family and social purposes, nor does it mean you lose your identity. But what it does imply is that you WANT TO BECOME AN AMERICAN.
I'm of Irish descent. My people suffered 800 years of oppression, enslavement, mass slaughter and more. Before that it was the Vikings. A Muslim caliphate invaded Southern Ireland. When we came here we were discriminated awfully, at one point there were more Irish slaves in Caribbean slave markets than there were black slaves. Through the 20th century, the Klu Klux Klan targeted Catholics and we were deemed suspect by much of society.
What did my people do? We effing worked when we got here. We overcame the obstacles, and improved our culture. Cuz guess what? Some of the stereotypes about the Irish were true, in terms of fighting and drinking. Our long oppression had warped our culture. But it was ours to 'fix' and we did so. Today you see Irish in all areas of American society, but you probably never even know they are Irish. Does Biden talk much about his Irish heritage? Nope, we are Americans.
Fyi, when my people came here, 1/3 of the immigrants who arrived with them went back home voluntarily due to not liking it here or failing to thrive. It was not easy. But freedom meant everything to them. No whining. No special 'affirmative action' needed. Just work and focusing on improving ourselves via education and financial responsibility and civic involvement.
That's what successful assimilation looks like. In the neighborhood I grew up in there were Poles and Germans and Italians and others, and we all felt the same. While we knew we had different backgrounds, we all felt like we were in the same boat. Intermarriage was and is common, within or outside of Catholicism. There was no rivalry based on ethnicity, none at all. That's a ton of 'progress' less than 100 years.
Today? We've got a multi-cultural mess of a society that is alienated, atomized, isolated and at each other's throats. The solution? 20 year immigration freeze (no asylum either). Deportation of all who don't belong here, and forced assimilation. No govt programs or services offered in anything but English. Only thing the govt should do is make sure free English classes are available, and now with the online environment, anyone can learn English on Youtube, for free. Or pay 10 bucks a month to get an app to do so. We should eliminate all affirmative action and public accommodation laws. Cuz they didn't work, they created the opposite outcome from what we were sold. Just sayin'...
Last. You should know I was like a lot of other silly Republicans when I was younger and supported large scale immigration. But after living in a nation that has had 70 million third worlders shoved into it over the past 50 years, I'm no longer that stupid...
This is where I grew up. If you want a little insight into the Appalachian point of view, you will do no better than to watch "Matewan," a John Sales historical movie starring James Earl Jones. The actor portraying Matewan sheriff Sid Hatfield is so real he gives me chills. If you are short of time, at least take the effort to google up, "Matewan Massacre."
I remember relatives who lived through the Mine Wars - yes wars - when the coal companies, aided and abetted by the corrupt West Virginia government, intimidated and abused the coal miners and their families through entities such as the Roanoke-based Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency (the Baldwin Thugs), forced the miners to pay rent and live in "company housing" - owned by the coal company - were paid in "scrip" - stamped brass tokens that could only be redeemed at the Company Store. Striking West Virginia miners were the only Americans in history to be bombed from the air by the American military, or forced to pass by machine-gun nests "protecting them from the commies" to work in the mines. Families of miners who were killed in the mines were immediately ejected from the coal-camp company housing because they dragged down the morale of the others. During the pro-union strikes, the families were ejected into the snow.
No, nobody's asking for "reparashuns" or a leg-up or a handout. It's just nice to know some of what drives us ignorant Hillbillies to decades of self-destructive behavior.
One of the - if not THE - greatest loss of life was in 1914 at the Eccles mine, about ten miles from where I grew up in West Virginia. There were about 180 men killed, a great number of whom were (LEGAL, almost certainly) immigrants. There were a number of boys under 15 years of age killed. Nobody knows for sure who all of the victims were because the current system of checking in and out was not in use at that time, and many of the immigrants and their families did not speak English.
Many of the Italians were stonecutters, and superb ones. The "hoist house" in Eccles (originally named Ecclesiastes until the postal service shortened it) that housed the winches which had lowered and raised the man-cages 300' below ground persisted until the 1970s. It was a huge affair, made entirely of cut sandstone. Buildings and retaining walls erected by the Italians at the turn of the 20th century still stand.
One college summer I worked in that coal seam, (the Beckley seam) but at a different location. It is over six feet thick - over ten feet in places, one of the few seams where a miner can stand upright. Unfortunately it is also "gassy" and exudes methane (called fire damp) and hydrogen, which is now handled by huge ventilation fans pulling fresh air through the mine. Back in those days, ventilation was extremely poor and the miners used "carbide lamps" which produced light in the form of an open flame. Not a good fit with poor ventilation and methane.
re: immigrants. My oldest brother married the daughter of two full-blooded immigrants, a stunningly-beautiful and dutiful wife. When he was a young man and had moved to Cleveland for work in the steel mills, he encountered a fellow who was railing on about the immigrants and how they shouldn't be here. Gene listened patiently and fumed for a while and then suddenly came across the table, simultaneously shouting, "God Damn You; My Wife Is Italian!" and laying the man out cold on the floor.
“Matewan” is one of our favorite movies - and you are right about David Strathairn (who played Hatfield). The whole cast is riveting. We visited the town about twenty years ago. The buildings facing the railroad track are still pockmarked with bullet holes. Very moving.
I knew several of the actors, who were locals. One of the movie sets is at Thurmond, West Virginia - a wide-open little town known at one time as "The Dodge City of the East." Hard to believe now, but that town had two banks and two cathouses in the 'twenties. Very little is left now.
Oh well, the only thing that never changes is change itself ....
Here's a link to The definitive article on the Baldwin Thugs in The Roanoker Magazine. They were based in Roanoke, VA, which in those days may as well have been the other side of the planet. The owners were regarded as pillars of the community, and nobody in Virginia knew the kind of abuse these men were heaping on the West Virginia coal miners and their families.
Yes, this was a long time ago, but we all know what George Santayana said about not learning from history, and in my eye, we are THIS close to repeating it. (edited to provide link)
An excellent documentary that came out in the 70's was "Harlan County, USA" about coal miners and their families who waged a strike in 1973 against East Over Coal in Harlan County. It was intense and it is played every Labor Day. I think it won an Academy Award in 1976....back when that meant something.
I never heard the term until I was in college, and thought it originated in the Texas oilfields. I Grokked it up, and here's what it had to say:
"The term "redneck" has a history that traces back to the 17th century. It was originally used in Scotland to describe the Covenanters, a group of Scottish Presbyterians who fought against the royal interference in the church from the Stuart monarchy. These Covenanters signed covenants in blood to show their loyalty to the church over the British King Charles of England, and they wore red bandannas or neckerchiefs around their necks as a sign of solidarity.
"The term "redneck" eventually made its way to the United States, where it took on a new meaning. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was used to describe poor white farmers in the rural South who were exposed to the sun while working in the fields. The term was often used in a derogatory manner to refer to these farmers as uneducated and unsophisticated.
"In the 1970s, the term expanded in meaning to include a bigoted and conventional person, a loutish ultra-conservative. However, some groups in the South have since taken back the term and made it their own, using it as a symbol of pride and working-class solidarity.
"In conclusion, the term "redneck" has a long and complex history, and its meaning has changed over time. While it was originally used to describe religious heretics in Scotland, it eventually came to refer to poor white farmers in the rural South and, more recently, to a bigoted and conservative person. Today, it is often used as a symbol of pride and working-class solidarity in the South."
I'm really liking Grok. It ain't cheap, but SO FAR it SEEMS to be the only place where you don't have to worry that Alleged President Joe Stolen's Stasi has vetted the answer.
I’d like a deeper-dive into this story: How did each person finance their store opening? What practical steps can people in similar towns take to move in this direction? Were the churches or other community-based organizations (not government) involved and supportive? Good article — thank you.
Yes! I hope the author considers a book on this. I just finished reading Evicted which follows 8 families facing eviction in Milwaukee’s inner city and trailer park neighborhood. A deep dive in a similar format on how these former addicts managed to rebuild their lives would be fascinating.
Dear RSL, around here and most likely where you are grants are available to help with the seed capital. You must perform your due diligence which includes a soundish appearing business plan.
What a fabulous story! Thank you! Now I’ll flip through my local paper to read what passes for good news here in CT — our government throwing dollars at insatiable, wasteful government-run programs that do nothing to fix the myriad problems we confront. Talk about an addiction problem! Here in the land of oh-so-smart Ivy grads, we could learn a thing or two from the good people of Hazard.
TFp gang- you have a knack for making me cry- this time with joy and hope as I read about renewal in a small Kentucky town. Several years ago as I moved from SoCal to CT I stopped overnight in Kentucky. Didn’t realize I was in a “ bad” part of drug-town. As a mom and grandmother my heart broke seeing the human devastation at my motel, the local McDonalds, in the parking lot where my car was parked. I wept then and prayed. This story so encourages me. Thank you
"But no one’s waiting any longer for factories or big-box stores—to say nothing of the mines or unions—to save them. 'Too many have come in to try to save us, and they don’t,' Stapleton, the mayor of Prestonsburg, said. “We got to do it ourselves.' " The power of individuals and communities is strong! Love seeing a story that shines a light on some of the many positive developments going on. Thanks FP.
Thank you Sam for staying engaged with this town and these folks and sharing their story of rebuilding and hope. It’s an important human message about recovery, renewal and new beginnings.
When I woke up this morning, I thought “I guess it’s time to read the WSJ and get my daily dose of bad news “ before I go to the FP to hopefully find something a little more balanced. Reading this story was like a cup of hope. I have a son who has struggled with oxy, but is now clean… so can identify with how those people feel, and God bless them for showing us how to pick yourselves up by the bootstraps!!
It is one of the scariest things imaginable to have a loved one struggle with a medical drug that was pushed as "safe" and from which billions were made by ghouls who feasted upon the misery of their victims. You must be very proud of your son's courage and strength. You are not alone.
Good Morning Tom, I also read the WSJ and TFP each morning. I also have a son who has/is struggling with drugs. Your story inspires me. God bless you and the Kentuckyians who are turning their lives around.
People don't realize this, but the recovery rate for people to kick an addiction permanently is actually pretty high; it's astonishing and a real testament to people healing. Congratulations to your son, and may God bless him in his recovery.
Dear Mr. Cashman, Congratulations. Naturally I lay the blame at the feet of the vile leftists. When one realizes I'm responsible for myself the road to recovery is greatly shortened.
Thank you Tom . My thoughts exactly. I have an unread WSJ next to me also. Good look to your son and God bless him!
I hope we can hear more about this town and others like it. Goes to show how strong Americans are, and how we can come out of the worst times. God bless Hazard.
Self reliance. Common sense. Personal entrepreneurship. Sounds like America.
More of this please.
I couldn't help thinking, as I read this, about the people who originally came west over the Appalachians. They built their communities from scratch, this same way.
Seconded
I love articles that refute the "dumb hillbilly" stereotype the elites bestow upon Appalachia. These are ambitious and resilient people.
Another example of fine journalism from The FP.
Why is this hopeful? Because it’s about small people making small incremental improvements to their lives. This is how you change. You start with yourself. Then expand out slowly. It’s what Jordan Peterson says. It’s what Dave Ramsey says. Two of the most listened to people in North America.
Its certainly fun to rail at the big fat problems with our federal governments and institutions. But ultimately we all need to take personal responsibility for our lives. We all have to make small daily choices. That’s where we experience change the most.
Love this story! More please.
that's pretty much it. I came to these ideas studying the opioid epidemic and the idea that we could eradicate all pain with one pill. A magic bullet for all that ails us. we're still paying for the unintended consequences of that. It's the small, daily stuff, local stuff that creates healthy, lasting social change. Hence the title to my last book, The Least of Us, in which I began to tell similar stories, and from which this FP piece grew.... Thank you for the wise comment!
You wrote a great story that I found really heartwarming. Despite challenges and obstacles, these people are picking up the pieces and making something beautiful and good out of what was relegated to the trash, so to speak. I lived in rural Indiana for 12 years of my life, and it was a rundown town decimated by the loss of the steel mills and other manufacturing. After some hardworking people got grants and put in elbow grease, the downtown is thriving again and bustling in a way I never saw while I lived there. Your story is one of the most hopeful things and was just what I needed while I'm sick with a head cold today. Thank you Sam.
Those are great stories. problem is, they're not self-evident. you have to dig to find them. They need to be told more often. Thanks for your comment....
Sam: Thank you very much for what you have done to tell us these stories. Dreamland is one of the few books I have read multiple times and recommend to anyone willing to hear.
It's been a minute since I've been to Hazard. I'm glad to hear good news. Tyler Childress' "Nose on the Grindstone" has been the anthem of that region for a while. He's from a town not too far from there.
Kentucky recentliy also passed a law authorizing research into Iboga/Ibogaine for opoid addiction. It's not without risks, but it works well, and most addicts--with the Fentanyl China is supplying, in what I suppose is a reverse Opium War, across the border Biden refuses to treat as his legal responsibility--die young.
I count myself as one of those who truly believes that freedom and personal responsibility are the answers to nearly all questions. They are harder answers in the short term. It's much easier to remain a child, and ask other people to solve your problems for you.
But here is the thing: the people who want to solve other peoples problems are usually basket cases themselves. They are emotionally dysfunctional. Anyone who wants to control others, or tell them what to do, is someone who themselves has a lot of growing up left to do, a lot of ground to cover before they are fully human.
So yes, life is hard in the short run. But it gets worse if you expect the world to solve your problems. And I really believe that responsible and FREE people in groups are BY FAR the most coherent, useful, and sustainably reliable force for social and moral and spiritual growth possible for human beings. This is the core idea of what is called Conservatism in this country. It is to be contrasted with the idea that emotionally disconnected economic elites KNOW BETTER, and should have the right and power to infantilize and control populations, and to pound them into whatever shape their puerile imagination think fit. That is the essence of Leftism: control, ignorance, violence, and emotional retardation.
Even worse is a government which has now pushed the mob aside and has entered the drug market along with numbers and protection rackets. I suppose prostitution is next.
If you think about it, making drugs illegal has the direct effect of making the government a weeder out of the weak, and a de facto ally in the creation and maintenace of drug distribution monopolies, particularly wherever corruption is possible. Most of Mexico is corrupt for this reason.
I side with William F. Buckley in his idea that all drugs should be legalized, at least at the Federal level, and how they should be dispensed, if at all, is a State level question. I personally think all should be available in specific places to anyone. What people do in their free time is really no concern of the rest of us, provided they hurt no one. Heroin addicts often become thieves and dependents, and this happens even though the drug is theoretically illegal.
Put another way, we have not won the War on Drugs in the 40-50 years we have been fighting it, but we have created the Mexican cartels, large amounts of organized crime, the first wave of civil rights nullification (which were succeeded by the Patriot Act, making the war on drugs plausibly a form of conditioning us to stop respecting the Constitution as written), and right now at no benefit to any of us. Large swathes of our nation are addicts. Most rural areas are filled will pill poppers and drug injection.
I don't think hard drugs should be available at the corner grocery store, but I think should put the illegal drug monopolies out of business by creating competition for them, and destroying the profitability.
And as regards psychedelics specifically, within contained contexts, they manifestly work wonders not possible--or at least probable--in any other way. Steve Jobs, as one example, long credited his own acid experiences with his creativity.
Conservatism to me, is about freedom. It is "good fences make good neighbors", but with the obvious qualification that I am a neighbor too, and I am a better neighbor if I am leaving you alone.
Do you actually BELIEVE that legalization will cripple the illegal drug trade? Do you really believe that ANY government is organically CAPABLE of running a legal trade in drugs? Just look at California as a case study. They legalized marijuana in hopes of eliminating, or at least MINIMIZING, the illegal marketplace. But, being government, they just couldn't let things go, and immediately started regulating and taxing the new pot marketplace until it began to show signs of collapsing.
As a result, the illegal trade is booming, NOT collapsing, because they can offer the drug at lower prices! If they decided to do the same for other drugs you would be able to hear the illegal vendors cheering! It would only increase the street prices because the reregulated drugs will be so expensive and people, being people, would opt out for the cheaper high.
This is the nature of government, so you independents, beware!
Here in Oregon, the legalized pot is taxed & funds schools, state police & drug/alchohol prevention 🤷♂️
https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/businesses/pages/marijuana.aspx
And a host of other social ills so bad your elected leaders are pulling their hair out to find a way out of the mess they created.
Dear Mr. Moore, Look at the alcohol model in the minimally regulated free America. Look back fifty years.
Does anyone recall the blue laws? In our town and county those folks who consumed alcohol but weren't good at preplanning and were caught by surprise Sunday morning had a problem.
Their problem was mitigated by our town fathers. The council rescinded the offensive laws and enterprising folks opened up gitNsplits right on the boundary/town limit road. Real Estate values rise and businesses thrive. The town was revitalized by that one shrewd move.
The pulpits groaned about it though.
I won't claim to have thought through all the details: I am speaking from a high level perspective, based on my principles.
But if California were not filled with idiots it would not be California. These are concrete policy questions that require the same attention to detail as military logistics, but my belief is that policies could be found that accomplish my intent, which is greater freedom and less organized crime.
Well then, I won't rain on your parade, so to speak. But thoughtful policies just do not emanate from a legislature that goes with the easy way out on everything else. People thought that the income tax amendment was a good idea, while the naysayers were worried that the tax might even go up to 10%! The same goes for Social Security and Medicare. Let's just face it, government just cannot handle nuance and, as Thomas Sewel calls it "Stage One Thinking" rules the day.
If only they went with "the easy way out." Most are corrupt if not thoroughly corrupt.
Its interesting that you would think a total ban on the sale and use of many drugs is not a greater imposition by government than their legalization. I would think many people in jail for things like simple possession would disagree. They are literally looking at cages built by and watched over by agents of government.
Research Colorado's legalization story. Cartels come in because of the high grade pot. That situation has gotten worse. In fact, you would hard pressed to find any law enforcement personnel who support the legalization. Although CO said they stop any of they're legal drugs from going across state lines, the financial burden on sparsely populated Western Nebraska is unbearable. The drug war failed. Tens of thousands of Mexicans dies because of it. What's the answer. I really don't know. But no one has found it yet. See what Portland and Oregon are now facing and trying to correct.
In Oregon they have not just endorsed drug use but criminality generally, Nobody, certainly not me, is advocating for letting drug users act in patently anti-social ways.
And Colorado in effect created a monolopolistic oasis in which high quality product was legal there, but unavailable by law around it. If good pot were legal in Nebraska at least that set of oroblems would disappear.
These are policy issues worthy of intelligent debate, but in my view we need to elimjnate the moral element. Everybody wants to get high in some way. It may be singing in church, but we all need it.
The Roman historian Sallust stated, "Most seek not freedom, only a fair master".
You have touched on the problems with a fair master. First, there is no such thing, you are dependent. Second, with a master you have someone to blame, therefore, you are a victim.
Learned helplessness is at the root of many of our problems.
Fentanyl keeps coming because it kills many of the people who would not vote blue. The government in San Francisco wastes 1.5 million dollars to build one toilet in the city and does nothing but give out money to the con men and women who further dehumanize addicts. It’s time to go after the big detox scams. If anybody can Senator Paul could.
Sam Quinones is one of the best journalists & authors of his generation. Buy & read his work: insightful & encouraging despite tough topics. Thanks, Sam!
I second the motion. Sam is an American treasure. From his recent book I learned that the recipe for meth changed about a decade ago from a pseudoephedrine based formula to a new type called p2p meth, using Chinese manufactured precursors. The new p2p meth causes psychosis, which is why so many of the homeless addicts you see now appear schizophrenic. It’s because the new p2p meth actually does induce paranoid schizophrenia and instead of addicts just becoming physically unhealthy, they now also become extremely crazy.
Such a great and hopeful read. In my neck of the woods, the public policy (or failed social experiment) of Permanent Supportive Housing has taken hold. Just down the street from me are plans to build 100 affordable housing units, many for families. Of the 100 units, 48 will be set aside for individuals who suffer from addiction or mental health issues, or both. They will be given a place to stay, fully paid for, with no strings attached; no requirement to enter treatment, seek counseling or get clean. If I were one of the families thinking of moving here, I would think twice about subjecting my young children to this environment.
We have had numerous meetings with the local police who warn us that they have seen this type of housing attract dealers into the neighborhood and the drug crisis actually becomes worse, not better.
I am heartened to read about the town of Hazard and to see a different type of approach take hold with so many positive outcomes.
They did that in Boise. $6 or $7 million to house drunks and junkies and they don’t have to do anything. Because I guess to require they get clean is just too mean.
And if you object to this approach, you are vilified. I wish The Free Press would do a deep dive on Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). Even the Mayor of San Francisco is moving toward treatment as a better option. San Francisco and maybe all of California has been leading the charge on PSH and spending heavily on it. Yet homelessness continues to sky rocket and overdose deaths have not come down at all.
This will sound harsh but, I don’t care one whit over OD deaths. I think people should get one free narcan but after that, if they haven’t woken up and gotten clean, then they deserve what happens.
Just curious if you've had a child, partner, close relative or good friend with an addiction issue?
See the work of Michael Shellenberger elsewhere on Substack. He also has a book on the failure of such programs in S.F., 'Sanfransicko.'
I too am from Boston where I consider this death by housing. The opposite of addiction is connection and this “free” housing has caused more deaths by isolation.
As someone in long term recovery from alcoholism, I think that the recovery world is very institutionalized and also focuses on groups that are outside the mainstream of a community. You kind of end up as an 'other' and outside of society in a way. Reading this made me think about how recovery should also be focused on reconnecting the addict to community, but also to think in terms of recovery for a community. How do we rebuild community? Not via big govt programs (but govt can be helpful) but rather via bottoms up efforts? Many communities are ravaged by addiction and need help. Thanks for this article, it's a gem.
Key point about community: I’m an herbalist, and was taught that when you take a whole plant, like an opium poppy, and refine and strip it of everything except the constituent that makes it opium, you have taken that chemical out of the safety of its plant community- away from the other parts of it that make it a living, balanced being. And when a person then takes that product, it has the same effect on them- it takes the part of them seeking to get high away from all of the other parts of themselves that make up their whole, living, balanced humanity.
The cure is connection, community, acceptance of your full humanity, and grace.
When an entire community has experienced that kind of stripping away of self and disconnecting, the key to restoration is making healing a group/community experience. Recovery groups are a wonderful example of how this works, but things like employing recovering addicts in local businesses where they are re-connecting to people who are not in recovery is a great next step to go beyond just being with those in recovery.
How does one do that in a 'low trust' society? How do we rebuild trust?
Start small. So many of the ways we try to 'fix' things are done at a national or state level. Trying to fix it for millions at once. Which doesn't often work. I think starting smaller, neighborhoods, churches, districts. Groups that already have something in common. As those smaller groups get string, you connect them so they can built a good support network.
A lot of our social trust issues are broad. Because this is a diverse country. But your building or block or small town or neighborhood is more likely to have connective tissue that can help break down trust issues.
Diversity isn't a strength. In fact, I just watched a lecture by prof who cited a meta-analysis of the 87 studies that have been done on diversity, and guess what? There is no benefit, only problems, according to their own 'science'. One wonders why 'diversity is our strength' is a motto for so many? Read Howard Putnam's Bowling Alone for serious academic work on how mass immigration destroys social trust, cohesion and civic institutions. "The science' tells us that multi-cultural societies will always be low trust...
Diversity means many things. Even in a fairly homogenous population, there is diversity. We are not pod people all acting in concert. Diversity allows for more new ideas and ways of thinking and being. Yes, diversity can also cause clashes. Especially if there are parts that are diametrically opposed. But that doesn't mean we push anyone out that isn't the 'same' as we are. This is actually what is happening on the left, despite all of their calls for diversity. They are trying to push out or destroy any kind of diversity in thinking.
Just as an example, lets look at Japan. A very homogenous culture that has stagnated in the last 20-30 years. Their culture tries to stamp down on people who do not conform. Which causes people with new ideas to remain silent. Does that mean Japan should just let in anyone who wants to come and give them free reign over culture? No. But it could mean that Japan might do well to consider new ways of doing things to adopt as part of their culture and society.
We don't have to let the left take control of the definitions of things and then totally denigrate that thing because the left uses it poorly. Diversity is an important part of growth and change. Sometimes for good sometimes for bad. Even nature understands diversity, which is why most animals do not reproduce by cloning. The mixing of differences can lead to new strength. In terms of society, I think the biggest issue is that populations that are working together need to share some common core things. For America it should be things based around what the country is founded on. Broadly speaking "Freedom". And right now that is probably one of the biggest issues. So many people here that don't actually like what this country is supposed to stand for and thus they are trying to change it.
Read this article to see how the goal posts are being moved in light of the failure of diversity to deliver it's touted benefits. Turns out just having diversity isn't enough. It takes a program and education and brainwashing and basically "re-education" to make it work. Lol. Marxist lowlifes always have the same solution - people like me need re-education. No thanks, I have a fucking genius IQ, I'm smarter than most of the dingbats pushing this crap, and I'm better informed. https://hbr.org/2020/11/getting-serious-about-diversity-enough-already-with-the-business-case
Do you have any valid and reliable analyses of this value of diversity you've asserted (without any proof)? I get, you think it's great - who cares? You can be as diverse in your life if you want to. Go move to the Chinatown near you, see how you like that. Note I'm not calling for ethnic or racial homogeneity specifically. I'm just calling out the utter BS that "diversity is our strength" is as an idea. It's not. Especially wrt mass immigration from non Western societies with people who don't share our basic values and culture. Go read Putnam's Bowling Alone and actually learn something about the massive social destruction our love affair with diversity has wrought on our society. If you read it, you will not be nearly as sanguine about all of this. Also, I have no problem with the meaning of the word. I mean it exactly as the Left uses it. What do you mean when you say it?
Somehow we've become far too infatuated with diversity and shifted to the worship of diversity for its own sake. And this has lead to a push for complete segregation of races. This approach is the opposite of what we should cultivate...we need to look to America's heritage as a "melting pot". This is the real source of our strengths. It is America's success as a melting pot that has given us our real wins against racial, religious and ethnic discrimination. Further, our melting pot has led to the sharing and combining of the best ideas and practices from differing cultures, thus creating and nourishing one of the worlds most innovative economies.
But care needs to be taken. We no longer have a majority religion as a common bond. So now, to assure unity, a sense of common welfare and community, its critical we maintain and encourage use of a common language.
Due to obsession with diversity and misplaced infatuation with multi-culturalism, we provide free taxpayer-funded translators for just about every language at a huge cost. Instead we should be offering free, possibly even compulsory*, English classes for immigrants to facilitate their integration and involvement in their new communities. Learning English would increase job opportunities for non-english speaking immigrants and spped integration of subsequent generations.
Sorry I've gone off on a tangent. But I think recognition of the value of our melting pot heritage is critical if local supportive communities are to ever emerge within drug and crime ridden multi-cultural, multi-racial big city neighborhoods.
[*Note:a number of other countries require that new immigrants learn basic language skills as a prerequisite for citizenship.]
All nations are formed via some kind of colonialism and occupation, by 'others'. That we were formed and built by 'immigrants' has nothing to do with what our immigration policy should be today. The issue you are talking about without using the word is 'assimilation' and the idea behind it is simple. You become us within 3 generations. Via intermarriage, adoption of our language, integration into our cultural institutions etc. Nothing about that means you can't keep your native tongue for family and social purposes, nor does it mean you lose your identity. But what it does imply is that you WANT TO BECOME AN AMERICAN.
I'm of Irish descent. My people suffered 800 years of oppression, enslavement, mass slaughter and more. Before that it was the Vikings. A Muslim caliphate invaded Southern Ireland. When we came here we were discriminated awfully, at one point there were more Irish slaves in Caribbean slave markets than there were black slaves. Through the 20th century, the Klu Klux Klan targeted Catholics and we were deemed suspect by much of society.
What did my people do? We effing worked when we got here. We overcame the obstacles, and improved our culture. Cuz guess what? Some of the stereotypes about the Irish were true, in terms of fighting and drinking. Our long oppression had warped our culture. But it was ours to 'fix' and we did so. Today you see Irish in all areas of American society, but you probably never even know they are Irish. Does Biden talk much about his Irish heritage? Nope, we are Americans.
Fyi, when my people came here, 1/3 of the immigrants who arrived with them went back home voluntarily due to not liking it here or failing to thrive. It was not easy. But freedom meant everything to them. No whining. No special 'affirmative action' needed. Just work and focusing on improving ourselves via education and financial responsibility and civic involvement.
That's what successful assimilation looks like. In the neighborhood I grew up in there were Poles and Germans and Italians and others, and we all felt the same. While we knew we had different backgrounds, we all felt like we were in the same boat. Intermarriage was and is common, within or outside of Catholicism. There was no rivalry based on ethnicity, none at all. That's a ton of 'progress' less than 100 years.
Today? We've got a multi-cultural mess of a society that is alienated, atomized, isolated and at each other's throats. The solution? 20 year immigration freeze (no asylum either). Deportation of all who don't belong here, and forced assimilation. No govt programs or services offered in anything but English. Only thing the govt should do is make sure free English classes are available, and now with the online environment, anyone can learn English on Youtube, for free. Or pay 10 bucks a month to get an app to do so. We should eliminate all affirmative action and public accommodation laws. Cuz they didn't work, they created the opposite outcome from what we were sold. Just sayin'...
Last. You should know I was like a lot of other silly Republicans when I was younger and supported large scale immigration. But after living in a nation that has had 70 million third worlders shoved into it over the past 50 years, I'm no longer that stupid...
This is where I grew up. If you want a little insight into the Appalachian point of view, you will do no better than to watch "Matewan," a John Sales historical movie starring James Earl Jones. The actor portraying Matewan sheriff Sid Hatfield is so real he gives me chills. If you are short of time, at least take the effort to google up, "Matewan Massacre."
I remember relatives who lived through the Mine Wars - yes wars - when the coal companies, aided and abetted by the corrupt West Virginia government, intimidated and abused the coal miners and their families through entities such as the Roanoke-based Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency (the Baldwin Thugs), forced the miners to pay rent and live in "company housing" - owned by the coal company - were paid in "scrip" - stamped brass tokens that could only be redeemed at the Company Store. Striking West Virginia miners were the only Americans in history to be bombed from the air by the American military, or forced to pass by machine-gun nests "protecting them from the commies" to work in the mines. Families of miners who were killed in the mines were immediately ejected from the coal-camp company housing because they dragged down the morale of the others. During the pro-union strikes, the families were ejected into the snow.
No, nobody's asking for "reparashuns" or a leg-up or a handout. It's just nice to know some of what drives us ignorant Hillbillies to decades of self-destructive behavior.
A great many of the miners involved in the Mine Wars around the US were immigrants.
Mine signage at the time often included multiple languages.
One of the - if not THE - greatest loss of life was in 1914 at the Eccles mine, about ten miles from where I grew up in West Virginia. There were about 180 men killed, a great number of whom were (LEGAL, almost certainly) immigrants. There were a number of boys under 15 years of age killed. Nobody knows for sure who all of the victims were because the current system of checking in and out was not in use at that time, and many of the immigrants and their families did not speak English.
Many of the Italians were stonecutters, and superb ones. The "hoist house" in Eccles (originally named Ecclesiastes until the postal service shortened it) that housed the winches which had lowered and raised the man-cages 300' below ground persisted until the 1970s. It was a huge affair, made entirely of cut sandstone. Buildings and retaining walls erected by the Italians at the turn of the 20th century still stand.
One college summer I worked in that coal seam, (the Beckley seam) but at a different location. It is over six feet thick - over ten feet in places, one of the few seams where a miner can stand upright. Unfortunately it is also "gassy" and exudes methane (called fire damp) and hydrogen, which is now handled by huge ventilation fans pulling fresh air through the mine. Back in those days, ventilation was extremely poor and the miners used "carbide lamps" which produced light in the form of an open flame. Not a good fit with poor ventilation and methane.
re: immigrants. My oldest brother married the daughter of two full-blooded immigrants, a stunningly-beautiful and dutiful wife. When he was a young man and had moved to Cleveland for work in the steel mills, he encountered a fellow who was railing on about the immigrants and how they shouldn't be here. Gene listened patiently and fumed for a while and then suddenly came across the table, simultaneously shouting, "God Damn You; My Wife Is Italian!" and laying the man out cold on the floor.
I always admired him for that.
“Matewan” is one of our favorite movies - and you are right about David Strathairn (who played Hatfield). The whole cast is riveting. We visited the town about twenty years ago. The buildings facing the railroad track are still pockmarked with bullet holes. Very moving.
I knew several of the actors, who were locals. One of the movie sets is at Thurmond, West Virginia - a wide-open little town known at one time as "The Dodge City of the East." Hard to believe now, but that town had two banks and two cathouses in the 'twenties. Very little is left now.
Oh well, the only thing that never changes is change itself ....
Here's a link to The definitive article on the Baldwin Thugs in The Roanoker Magazine. They were based in Roanoke, VA, which in those days may as well have been the other side of the planet. The owners were regarded as pillars of the community, and nobody in Virginia knew the kind of abuse these men were heaping on the West Virginia coal miners and their families.
https://theroanoker.com/interests/history/coalmining-war
Yes, this was a long time ago, but we all know what George Santayana said about not learning from history, and in my eye, we are THIS close to repeating it. (edited to provide link)
An excellent documentary that came out in the 70's was "Harlan County, USA" about coal miners and their families who waged a strike in 1973 against East Over Coal in Harlan County. It was intense and it is played every Labor Day. I think it won an Academy Award in 1976....back when that meant something.
Isn't this where the term "rednecks" originated? Because the miners wore red bandanas? I will check the movie out.
I never heard the term until I was in college, and thought it originated in the Texas oilfields. I Grokked it up, and here's what it had to say:
"The term "redneck" has a history that traces back to the 17th century. It was originally used in Scotland to describe the Covenanters, a group of Scottish Presbyterians who fought against the royal interference in the church from the Stuart monarchy. These Covenanters signed covenants in blood to show their loyalty to the church over the British King Charles of England, and they wore red bandannas or neckerchiefs around their necks as a sign of solidarity.
"The term "redneck" eventually made its way to the United States, where it took on a new meaning. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was used to describe poor white farmers in the rural South who were exposed to the sun while working in the fields. The term was often used in a derogatory manner to refer to these farmers as uneducated and unsophisticated.
"In the 1970s, the term expanded in meaning to include a bigoted and conventional person, a loutish ultra-conservative. However, some groups in the South have since taken back the term and made it their own, using it as a symbol of pride and working-class solidarity.
"In conclusion, the term "redneck" has a long and complex history, and its meaning has changed over time. While it was originally used to describe religious heretics in Scotland, it eventually came to refer to poor white farmers in the rural South and, more recently, to a bigoted and conservative person. Today, it is often used as a symbol of pride and working-class solidarity in the South."
I'm really liking Grok. It ain't cheap, but SO FAR it SEEMS to be the only place where you don't have to worry that Alleged President Joe Stolen's Stasi has vetted the answer.
I’d like a deeper-dive into this story: How did each person finance their store opening? What practical steps can people in similar towns take to move in this direction? Were the churches or other community-based organizations (not government) involved and supportive? Good article — thank you.
Yes! I hope the author considers a book on this. I just finished reading Evicted which follows 8 families facing eviction in Milwaukee’s inner city and trailer park neighborhood. A deep dive in a similar format on how these former addicts managed to rebuild their lives would be fascinating.
Dear RSL, around here and most likely where you are grants are available to help with the seed capital. You must perform your due diligence which includes a soundish appearing business plan.
Finally, something uplifting
What a fabulous story! Thank you! Now I’ll flip through my local paper to read what passes for good news here in CT — our government throwing dollars at insatiable, wasteful government-run programs that do nothing to fix the myriad problems we confront. Talk about an addiction problem! Here in the land of oh-so-smart Ivy grads, we could learn a thing or two from the good people of Hazard.
TFp gang- you have a knack for making me cry- this time with joy and hope as I read about renewal in a small Kentucky town. Several years ago as I moved from SoCal to CT I stopped overnight in Kentucky. Didn’t realize I was in a “ bad” part of drug-town. As a mom and grandmother my heart broke seeing the human devastation at my motel, the local McDonalds, in the parking lot where my car was parked. I wept then and prayed. This story so encourages me. Thank you
"But no one’s waiting any longer for factories or big-box stores—to say nothing of the mines or unions—to save them. 'Too many have come in to try to save us, and they don’t,' Stapleton, the mayor of Prestonsburg, said. “We got to do it ourselves.' " The power of individuals and communities is strong! Love seeing a story that shines a light on some of the many positive developments going on. Thanks FP.
Thank you Sam for staying engaged with this town and these folks and sharing their story of rebuilding and hope. It’s an important human message about recovery, renewal and new beginnings.