What is WV like? (Charleston, Wheeling: crime, neighborhoods, buy)

[vec101]

Considering that Appalachia stretches well past WV and Ky, I'm not sure where all it was filmed, but Diana Sawyer has a special on 20/20 tonight about poverty in Appalachia. "A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains"

The thing that bothers me - this is the only type of thing that people ever see about WV or Appalachia. You never see shows about the positives we have, people who are not rural and poor, nor about the wonderful outdoor activities we have to offer.

Friday's “20/20” finds Diane Sawyer in starkly different environs than the cheerily lighted Times Square studio she occupies each morning as co-host of “Good Morning America.”

In her latest ABC prime-time special, which examines poverty in Appalachia, Sawyer is scrubbed free of the glamour of morning television. Donning blue jeans, her normally coiffed hair pulled back in a ponytail, the anchor visits the deepest recesses of the mountainous region: the hillside trailer homes, the weathered front porches, the dank tunnels of a coal mine.

For Sawyer, it is not unfamiliar turf. She was born in Glasgow, Ky., and her family's ties to Appalachia stretch back decades.

........." said Sawyer, ...... "I'm always so moved by the bravery and the vitality of these essential American fighters. And now they've got a battle that they aren't winning."

The impetus for "A Hidden America" came from Sawyer's personal ties to Appalachia, she said, and a sense that the region was forgotten.

"I think that urban poverty, while often crushing and inestimable, doesn't have the isolation," she said.

Friday's special shows how a lack of transportation deepens the effects of depravation: one of the women in the piece, Angel, trudges eight miles down the mountain every day to reach her GED class.

Sawyer's producing team worked on the project for two years, traveling more than 14,000 miles in the process.
Diane Sawyer examines poverty in Appalachia - Los Angeles Times

[snorpus]

Oh no! Do I detect War on Poverty: Part Deux on the horizon?

All we need now is a successor to the "West Virginia Moon" outhouse.

[Threerun]

It is getting rather old to see these documentaries.

Take a look at inner city Baltimore.. Poverty, death, crime, and a lot more popluated than almost all the southern part of our state.

Sheesh.

[Buzz123]

To me West Virginia is green and hilly like most north eastern states, especially Vermont. I could drop you in either state and you probably wouldn't know the difference. Now that I live in the wide open desert of the west ─ well I'm in town, but you know what I mean ─ where it's possible to drive 100 miles and not meet another car, West Virginia (PA, OH, NY, NJ, MA, NH, VT, etc.) seems very congested yet still rural to me. There are so many trees in WV they say a squirrel could cross the whole state without ever touching the ground. But that's not just in the country, it's like that in town too.

[David Kennedy]

Ha Ha Ha...
Diane Saw-yuk...was safe coming here....can you see her doing a similar crap-piece in Bedford-Sty or Watts...East St. Louis

Those area's are passed over because they are hopeless and don't exist anymore...the van's would be stripped as they sat parked on the curb...not so here in Appy-land...we have no curbs...

How patri-rot-ic of her to give us some time....

ye haw!....sweet Jesus...we are saved again!...has Lyndon Baines Johnson risen from the Grave?

[vec101]

Have to say, I was surprised by Diane Sawyers documentary - instead of just pointing a finger and "look at the dumb hillbillies" I felt it had a nice tone to it. It pretty much broke my heart.

BTW - I believe it was all filmed in Ky.

[ctenanthe]

Originally Posted by David Kennedy

Ha Ha Ha...
Diane Saw-yuk...was safe coming here....can you see her doing a similar crap-piece in Bedford-Sty or Watts...East St. Louis

Diane Sawyer first did a show focusing on poverty on Camden, NJ (worse than Bed Stuy or Watts). Then she did the Kentucky show.

[ctenanthe]

Originally Posted by JMadison

Have some family in Bucks and Montgomery County, Pa. Is WV at all like those places?

WV isn't that similar to those counties, which are really suburbs of Philadelphia. Montgomery has 750,000 people and Bucks has 600,000 people. While there are a few parks, most of the area is developed and congested.

WV has 1.8 million people spread out over 55 counties. The most populous county (Kanawha) has 200,000.

[David Kennedy]

My point was the danger of those areas...(that they would not be in danger in Appalachia)

and as for the show...I discarded our TV's about 5 years ago...too much mental garbage...

point of use for me is a game now and then with the relatives...always a party with fun and frivolity..

If the Media is going to bring us back Abraham Lincoln, the Programs of LBJ/JFK, the Depression Rescue of Frank (the Shank) Roosevelt...and create a new World Order based souly onHope...the must begin in a poor location...

And none better than here, where we do not 'Know Any Better....(remember we voted wrong...that was a tip off to them that we needed saved.)

I can't wait to trade our style of poverty for inner city poverty...it has so many venues for survival...

Manhatten! Here we come!

Can't anybody see the daylight...

It's about education! and not delivering the goods!

My grandmother saw that light...in 1905 when she married...(damn I'm hot with this one) She did two revolutionary things in her Wv household...

1. Bathed her children with hot water everyday. (Not a common practice at that time)
Not important? Helped keep them healthy and free of parasites.

2. As a school teacher, she demanded they study and fill their minds with knowledge...

I will not bore you with the outcome...Educators, Doctors, skilled Engineers, College Professors and world travelers were her legacy...and it is still gowing on with the encouragement and demands for quality in this her 5th generation.
As newborns come into the world their college plans are discussed...the funds are begun...the skills are developed..swimming at 6 months, reading and writing in nursery at 2/3 years with home schooling.

What is enforced is the need to survive...and it takes skills and education to do that...Adapt with the changing world...

It's great to have Hopeless Hope...so secure...but what if it fails? Where does a person go them...

I'll answer that...Like the lemmings..over the cliff...

In this case..someone else with an agenda...perhaps China..might move the lemmings out of the way and use the real estate more wisely...

A billion people? And they need to expand to become the dominate culture of the planet..

Keep Appalachia safe...Why?

There is a loaded rifle or shotgun behind almost everydoor...to protect us from the enemy who is now not only 'within...but standing brashly at our front door...

How much did that last War on Poverty failure cost? Pennies I'm sure compared to this one...

[genesee]

I'd say it's closer in landscape and people to Potter county PA..referring to the rural areas of WV as a comparison. Both beautiful, though love WV through and through!