By RONNIE ELLIS
FRANKFORT — Once again Kentucky is buzzing about an unflattering image of the state broadcast on national media. ABC’s 20/20 and Diane Sawyer, a native Kentuckian, broadcast heart-breaking profiles of children and despair in Appalachian Kentucky.
Unlike last year when CNN broadcast reports from Clay County during the presidential primary, Sawyer’s portrayal was more sympathetic and the reaction this time has been less outrage directed at the messenger and more frustration over the continuing desperation in the region. Several eastern Kentuckians have said the show was more balanced than the usual stories by outsiders. Sawyer showed successful residents of the area as well as the forlorn and she didn’t patronize. It probably helps that she’s from Kentucky as well.
Actress Ashley Judd, during a visit to Frankfort to call for the state to move away from its dependence on coal and especially to end mountaintop removal coal mining, said the show is “the same darn show that’s been talking about Appalachia for decades.” And this time, unlike reaction to the CNN broadcasts last year that seems to be the dominant reaction: how long will we accept what’s happening in parts of eastern Kentucky?
(It’s also true that poverty and drug abuse aren’t unique to the mountains. Those same stories exist in every community in the state.)
Maybe the people of eastern Kentucky and the rest of the commonwealth are ready to demand someone finally do something about low education attainment, poverty, joblessness, drug abuse and despair in the region. Solutions can’t come only from the outside. The region’s people themselves must accept some responsibility, as well as those in government. The region and its people will have to make some hard choices. Rural and isolated areas offer many desirable qualities but broad economic opportunity often isn’t among them. But they might reasonably also look to some of the people who run things for help.
The speaker of the house is Greg Stumbo – from Prestonsburg. House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins is from Sandy Hook and the Democratic Whip is John Will Stacy from West Liberty. The district of Senate President David Williams is in the foothills of Appalachia. The Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley is originally from southeastern Kentucky and the Democratic Caucus Chairman is Johnny Ray Turner of Drift. Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo is from Hazard. Others from the region chair important legislative committees. It’s not as if eastern Kentucky doesn’t wield political power in Frankfort.
The leader of Washington Republicans is Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Congressman Hal Rogers represents Kentucky’s Fifth District which covers much of the area. Rogers has spent much effort trying to secure funding for the region. Programs like UNITE and especially PRIDE have made a difference. Eastern Kentucky lawmakers in Frankfort work hard to direct coal severance money and other state funding back home. But policy makers in Washington or Frankfort can’t do it by themselves. Parents, schools and community institutions have to do more and demand better. Why for instance didn’t a coach or a neighbor or someone offer the profiled athlete sleeping in a pickup truck a place to stay and help with his studies?
Maybe this time, however, people in Kentucky, the good and justifiably proud people in the region, and people in power will decide it’s time we all step up, work together and make life better and more hopeful for the children of Appalachia. That would be the best reaction of all to Sawyer’s broadcast.
Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.
