You can count me in on anything that will help them. I would love that because they really have my heart. Send me an email on my personal account and we can talk about it. If you drive through the towns and cities you could easily fool yourself into thinking things are not that bad. When you travel out of the towns though it becomes evident that it is that bad and often worse than you imagined. These people have given so much to American culture. They have produced some of the best music and musicians America has produced. Like the poverty stricken Delta it is a breeding ground for artists that are great. Yet they are ridiculed in modern media with stereotypes that are degrading beyond belief. They are not lazy they are not stupid they simply need help. Go to youtube and type in Appalachian Poverty. The videos will make you sick or at least they should. I know that poverty is bad all around the world and it upsets me to see so many with so little. I am not rich hell I barely qualify as poor. I don't think I make enough right now to qualify for the poor status lol. There is a difference though between being in a rough time in your life and living a life of utter poverty. I can't afford to go to 3rd world countries and help right now. I care but I can't do it. I can help out in my backyard. I can help the people who's ancestors crossed the Cumberland Gap with my ancestors. If my whatever great grandfather had stayed instead of moving into the western part of the state those kids in the video may easily be mine. The men you see could have easily be me. The same applies for all of you regardless of where you are. If all I can do is help keep one kid warm on a cold night or offer a hot meal for a man that has toiled away a long hard day's work and ended it with no place to go what more can you ask?
Ok off my soap box. This is just a passionate issue for me.
cya
JT