Children of the Mountains Struggle to Survive

[Teacher Mark 53]

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

I am from Charleston, WV, which is a far cry from the area depicted in the segments. It is Appalachia though, of that you can rest assured.

We were fortunate because we benefited greatly from attention that was given to the region. When I was growing up the Interstates that Kennedy promised WV were being built. When the mines went bust in the early 80's LBJ's social programs prevented us from starving to death. When the time came I got out via the US Army.

It's the kids that I have pity for. The adults have made bad decisions, some very early in life.

US 119 is a real good road. It leads out of Pikeville, Danville and many other "villes" along the way.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Joe Six-Pack

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Make that 3.

[alienlovechild 75]

People care about the regions, but there's a reason we call it the cycle of poverty. If you're a bright kid from that area, and you manage to get out and go to college, you probably don't come back. If you're a patriotic kid, you probably join the military, then go to college, then don't move back. If you're not equipped to leave, then you stay in a region with no jobs (since the collapse of the coal industry.) It's not a healthy business area.

I was watching some show for Black History Month on PBS and the host went to some poverty stricken slum. He was so dismayed by the cycle of poverty there that he wondered if he'd have failed in life if he came from a place like that. By the same token, the show talked about people who were driven enough to move out and never loooked back.

Collapse of the coal industry? The U.S. is the 2nd largest producer of coal in the world but we don't need as many miners. . .

"In the United States, the increase in technology has significantly decreased the mining workforce from 335,000 coal miners working at 7,200 mines fifty years ago to 104,824 miners working in fewer than 2,000 mines today. As some might see this as a sign that coal is a declining industry its advances has reported an 83% increase of production from 1970 to 2004"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining

Right off the top of my head, I can think of two regulars who proudly claim to be from there. There are, of course, many more.

Not proud enough or numerous enough to comment on this thread though.

[almaty 19]

my family came from somerset kentucky.....and i worked briefly in harlan county kentucky..

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Ok, 4.

[Bootylicious!! 2]

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of two regulars who proudly claim to be from there. There are, of course, many more.

I'm from there. Although I'd venture to say I was included in your count. I am very proud to be from the Appalachians. I wouldn't consider living anywhere else. And yeah, it's true I'm poor. Have been my whole life. Probably won't be any different. And unless my kids move out of here I'd say they'll be poor too. It doesn't bother me. The benefits of living in such a great place outweigh the consequences. I'd say that's why most people still live in these areas.

[Teacher Mark 53]

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of two regulars who proudly claim to be from there. There are, of course, many more.

I'm from there. Although I'd venture to say I was included in your count. I am very proud to be from the Appalachians. I wouldn't consider living anywhere else. And yeah, it's true I'm poor. Have been my whole life. Probably won't be any different. And unless my kids move out of here I'd say they'll be poor too. It doesn't bother me. The benefits of living in such a great place outweigh the consequences. I'd say that's why most people still live in these areas.

I see a bulletin board in the background of you avatar. You must be doing OK, havin' somethin' that fancy ahangin' on the walls!

[rebeccajo 14]

Not proud enough or numerous enough to comment on this thread though.

Oh really?

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

I am from Charleston, WV, which is a far cry from the area depicted in the segments. It is Appalachia though, of that you can rest assured.

We were fortunate because we benefited greatly from attention that was given to the region. When I was growing up the Interstates that Kennedy promised WV were being built. When the mines went bust in the early 80's LBJ's social programs prevented us from starving to death. When the time came I got out via the US Army.

It's the kids that I have pity for. The adults have made bad decisions, some very early in life.

US 119 is a real good road. It leads out of Pikeville, Danville and many other "villes" along the way.

We have to take 77 South to Charleston on Friday. For - guess what - biometrics!

It's a big enough city that USCIS actually put an office there! Can you believe it!

[Caladan 19]

Fewer miners = hard on the working class folks who live there, alienslovechild.

It's a beautiful region of the country.

[Bootylicious!! 2]

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of two regulars who proudly claim to be from there. There are, of course, many more.

I'm from there. Although I'd venture to say I was included in your count. I am very proud to be from the Appalachians. I wouldn't consider living anywhere else. And yeah, it's true I'm poor. Have been my whole life. Probably won't be any different. And unless my kids move out of here I'd say they'll be poor too. It doesn't bother me. The benefits of living in such a great place outweigh the consequences. I'd say that's why most people still live in these areas.

I see a bulletin board in the background of you avatar. You must be doing OK, havin' somethin' that fancy ahangin' on the walls!

:lol:

[Teacher Mark 53]

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of two regulars who proudly claim to be from there. There are, of course, many more.

I'm from there. Although I'd venture to say I was included in your count. I am very proud to be from the Appalachians. I wouldn't consider living anywhere else. And yeah, it's true I'm poor. Have been my whole life. Probably won't be any different. And unless my kids move out of here I'd say they'll be poor too. It doesn't bother me. The benefits of living in such a great place outweigh the consequences. I'd say that's why most people still live in these areas.

I see a bulletin board in the background of you avatar. You must be doing OK, havin' somethin' that fancy ahangin' on the walls!

:lol:

In 1981 we would have ate it! That was a year that the mines were NOT booming.

[peejay 327]

Peejay, do me a favor next time before you go off on another one of your rants. Don't accuse me of being a sympathizer to illegal behavior. I am not.

But as a US citizen who complied with the laws of my government, and the wife of an immigrant who did the same, I refuse to stand idly by while the US government messes around with me.

Here are excerpts from the link I gave (which happens to be a Department of Homeland Security study):

...................."Three employees contacted USCIS to correct problems with their paperwork. One

employee received the referral letter, called the USCIS telephone number, and resolved

the problem over the telephone without any difficulty. The other two employees did not

receive referral letters and went to local USCIS offices. The latter two employees

reported spending 1 to 2 days getting copies of various documents to return to their

employers. One employee returned with a letter stating that his permanent residency card

was in process and was terminated because the system reported a final nonconfirmation.

The second employee returned with a work permit renewal application and a letter from

his lawyer and was not terminated despite a final nonconfirmation from USCIS."....................

........................"Two employers suggested that the Web Basic Pilot system should be used by

all employers to prescreen applicants before they are hired or start working.

This suggestion indicates that these employers may not fully understand the

reasons for not prescreening applicants.".........................

......................."Most employees who did not contest the tentative nonconfirmation findings were not

work-authorized. A few work-authorized employees did not contest the findings or were

unsuccessful in contesting the findings because their employers did not give them

sufficient or correct information. For example, two work-authorized employees were

unable to contest the tentative nonconfirmation findings because they did not understand

how to correct their paperwork. Another two work-authorized employees tried to contest

but were unsuccessful; one was incorrectly told to go to SSA rather than USCIS, and the

other visited USCIS but did not have a referral letter explaining that he needed to resolve

a tentative nonconfirmation finding. In the latter case, the employee obtained a letter

from USCIS stating that he was in the process of becoming a permanent resident;

however, this documentation was not sufficient to prevent him from being terminated.

Two additional employees were told by their employer that the HR office would take care

of the problem for them, so they did not contest the finding themselves.".......................

And to luckytxn -

Since when does it take "many months" under the current I-9 system to verify if someone is work authorized or not? Do you know how to complete an I-9 yourself? Do you understand that process at all?

E-Verify: The Facts

1. How accurate is E-Verify? According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which

manages E-Verify within the Department of Homeland Security:

• In 2007, the overall accuracy rate of E-Verify was 99.5 percent.

• 93 percent of employees queried through the system were verified within five

seconds.

• 1.2 percent are verified within 24 hours, with no additional action required of

either the employee or the employer.

• Of the 5.8 percent of employees who receive a tentative non-confirmation, 0.5

percent must contact the Social Security Administration or (for certain

noncitizens) USCIS to correct mistakes on their records—an action they would

have to take sooner or later anyway, to receive either retirement or immigration

benefits.

• The remaining 5.3 percent of employees receive a final non-confirmation and

must be terminated by their employers (most of these simply fail to show up for

work again rather than waiting to be fired). Not surprisingly, this number

corresponds closely to an estimate by the Pew Hispanic Center that illegal aliens

hold 4.9 percent of U.S. jobs.

• An independent review of E-Verify between April and June 2008 by Westat found that

96 percent of employees were verified instantly; 0.4 percent had to contact SSA or

USCIS to resolve record errors; and 3.5 percent received final non-confirmations.

• Opponents of E-Verify have been unable to find a single instance in which an employer

relying on an erroneous E-Verify non-confirmation terminated a U.S. citizen.

http://www.numbersusa.com/content/files/pd...ify%20Facts.pdf

[rebeccajo 14]

NumbersUSA.com?

You've got to be kidding me.........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NumbersUSA

The organization was founded in 1997, with the support of anti-immigration environmental activist John Tanton[2], by former journalist Roy Beck, its current executive director. Beck says that he started NumbersUSA after he wrote The Case Against Immigration (ISBN 0393039153). In the course of researching the book he tracked many of the problems in the US to immigration.[3] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes NumbersUSA as part of a network of "anti-immigration" organizations created by Tanton.[4] The Wall Street Journal also identifies NumbersUSA as one of a half dozen groups founded or funded by Tanton in order to stop immigration and promote population control.[5] However, Beck says that NumbersUSA has been independent of Tanton since 2002.[6]

NumbersUSA's position is that the United States has become overpopulated due to high levels of immigration caused by the Hart-Celler Act of 1965. They assert that without increased immigration since 1970, America would currently have achieved zero population growth or even a net population reduction. Any recent U.S. population growth can therefore be attributed to immigration since 1970, not the fertility rate of the pre-1970 native population.[citation needed]

And about John Tanton:

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1360.html

John Tanton is widely recognized as the leading figure in the anti-immigration and "official English" movements in the United States. Initially, Tanton's public policy advocacy work was driven by his commitment to zero population growth and environmental conservation. By the late 1970s, however, this concern about the environment and population growth evolved into a crusade against immigration flows into the United States, particularly from Latin American and Caribbean nations. At the time that the New Right, Christian Right, and neoconservative political tendencies were mobilizing new constituencies against center-left politics in the United States, Tanton played a central role in mobilizing backlash sentiment against immigrants. Tapping his base in environmental and population control organizations such as the Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, and Zero Population Growth, Tanton in 1979 cofounded what has become the most influential anti-immigrant policy institute in the nation: Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). In 1983, he also cofounded the most influential "official English" or English-only organization, U.S. English.

Along with a few other FAIR board members, in the early 1980s Tanton founded a nationalist organization called WITAN-short for the Old English term "witenagemot," meaning "council of wise men." In 1986, Tanton signed a memo that went to WITAN members that highlighted the supremacist bent of Tanton and FAIR. (7)(8) The memo charged that Latin American immigrants brought a culture of political corruption with them to the United States and that they were unlikely to involve themselves in civil life. He raised the alarm that they could become the majority group in U.S. society. What's more, he asked: "Can ** contraceptivus compete with ** progenitiva?" Answering his own rhetorical question, Tanton wrote that "perhaps this is the first instance in which those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down!" According to Tanton, "In California 2030, the non-Hispanic Whites and Asians will own the property, have the good jobs and education, speak one language and be mostly Protestant and 'other.' The Blacks and Hispanics will have the poor jobs, will lack education, own little property, speak another language and will be mainly Catholic." Furthermore, Tanton raised concerns about the "educability" of Hispanics. (10) In 1988 the media published the Tanton memo, causing a number of former supporters of U.S. English to cut ties with Tanton, including Walter Cronkite. (7)(8)

Try using a reputable source, peejay.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-05-immigration_N.htm

Among the problems that have been identified with E-Verify, according to a report commissioned by the Homeland Security Department:

•The system gives preliminary rejections to workers who should be approved, particularly non-U.S. citizens. Only 0.1% of U.S.-born workers received false rejection notices between 2004 and 2007. The rate for foreign-born workers was 3%.

"The result is increased discrimination against foreign-born employees," the report says.

•Some employers fail to tell workers they were rejected, making them miss a chance to appeal. Others use E-Verify illegally by checking job applicants. Checks must be done after someone starts working. Workers have eight days to appeal a preliminary rejection and cannot be fired in that time.

•E-Verify does not keep people from using fraudulent IDs to get work authorization.

Intel, one of the largest U.S. employers, found that 12% of its 1,360 workers hired between January and July 2008 were initially rejected. Intel challenged the 143 rejections and all of the workers were found to be legal U.S. residents, the company said in a letter to the federal government.

[Brad and Vika 129]

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of two regulars who proudly claim to be from there. There are, of course, many more.

I'm from there. Although I'd venture to say I was included in your count. I am very proud to be from the Appalachians. I wouldn't consider living anywhere else. And yeah, it's true I'm poor. Have been my whole life. Probably won't be any different. And unless my kids move out of here I'd say they'll be poor too. It doesn't bother me. The benefits of living in such a great place outweigh the consequences. I'd say that's why most people still live in these areas.

I went to college in Johnson City, Tennessee (GO Bucs!), and there were lots of students who graduated and flat refused to leave - poor or not. One friend told me that he would rather live in a cave in East Tennessee than a mansion anywhere else, and another had parents that promised never to speak to her again if she left God's country. Loyalty to the region runs deep, and plenty of people don't try to get out. Many of those who do (like those who left in the 80's to work in Detroit) spend all their lives planning when they can next "go back home", even after 30 years away. I often wonder what it would be like to have roots like that.

[Teacher Mark 53]

You know a region and a people are off the national radar when nobody claims to be from there on this forum.

Right off the top of my head, I can think of two regulars who proudly claim to be from there. There are, of course, many more.

I'm from there. Although I'd venture to say I was included in your count. I am very proud to be from the Appalachians. I wouldn't consider living anywhere else. And yeah, it's true I'm poor. Have been my whole life. Probably won't be any different. And unless my kids move out of here I'd say they'll be poor too. It doesn't bother me. The benefits of living in such a great place outweigh the consequences. I'd say that's why most people still live in these areas.

I went to college in Johnson City, Tennessee (GO Bucs!), and there were lots of students who graduated and flat refused to leave - poor or not. One friend told me that he would rather live in a cave in East Tennessee than a mansion anywhere else, and another had parents that promised never to speak to her again if she left God's country. Loyalty to the region runs deep, and plenty of people don't try to get out. Many of those who do (like those who left in the 80's to work in Detroit) spend all their lives planning when they can next "go back home", even after 30 years away. I often wonder what it would be like to have roots like that.

The Tri-Cities area of Tennessee/Virginia is exceptional. I spent a few years there as well. It's actually one of my favorite spots in the US. Had quite a few friends from "up North". 4 that I can think of from Jersey and 2 from Mass.