Hillbilly Hell

Appalachia. It conjures up images of proud and independent mountain folk, mountain vistas, isolated rural areas, and the movie Deliverance. That's a quaint and rather naive image.  There's a darker side. That side includes chronic poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, corrupt politicians, fundamentalists, and law enforcement that only works for the select few. In brief, except for the fundamentalists, every problem that you'd associate with an inner city problem area.

I've been told that Appalachia used to be different. I can't answer that, since I don't know the Appalachia of yesteryear. I just know that for the most part Appalachia hasn't managed the transition to the 21st century well at all.

If you like meth labs, people who are afraid to contact law enforcement, substance impaired drivers, school teachers who proclaim in class that "all homosexuals will face hellfire", people who believe that women have one more rib than men because the Bible says so, school systems that allow grades and discipline to be distributed based of family connections, law enforcement that works the same way, and neighbors who race their four wheelers around their half acre lots for half the night, then you'd probably like Appalachia. Otherwise, it will probably leave you wondering why the United States is expending so much effort fighting corrupt, fundamentalist, third world regimes half a planet away when their are corrupt, fundamentalist, third world regimes in the United States that should probably have priority.