[April 1999 journal entry]
Two insights I have gained by living in an economically depressed rural East TN/KY Appalachia setting.
Two insights I have gained by living in an economically depressed rural East TN/KY Appalachia setting.
- Professionals who choose to live/work in such settings face a critical and complicated parenting issue re their children’s education. We have felt this concern/problem, even though the public schools available to our kids in our town are noticeably better than options anywhere else in the area. My conclusion is that it is justifiable for professionals to take options that make available to their children the quality of education necessary for them to be able to follow their parent’s professional choices.
- The poor can be distinguished into two groups – those whose situation/plight is essentially linked to their being exploited and those for whom poverty has become a ‘culture’. Re the former, they and their situation change if/when exploitation is diminished/eliminated. Re the latter, they do not and their situation does not change if/when exploitation is diminished/removed. Note that, for the latter, the powerful exploiters see/find nothing much now in the area to exploit. They either accept carrying/subsidizing them or look for ways to eliminate responsibility for them. Note that discussion in Jewish scripture and Christian scripture re (in)justice has to do only with the first group.