A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains? Rebuttal from Johnson Central

[jceagle45]

@123shoobedoo (cont) It is, however, the school's job to insure that their students receive the best possible education and all the new technology that JCHS received helps them do just that.

[jceagle45]

@123shoobedoo Because it's not the place if a school system to make sure all their students don't have lazy, incompetent parents drawing a check so they don't have to work (not that every person drawing a check is lazy and/or incompetent.)

[123shoobedoo]

If they can spend the money building up the schools why dont thye help the families around them? maybe then you wouldn't have had to deal with diane filing around and trying to help out the people that you guys are obviously ignoring. accept the fact that you have one of the highest rates of poverty. just because you're doing good doesn't mean shit.

[real80smusic]

volume is fucked up

[erinbarney]

take the kids away and give them to fucking WHO?? To a foster parent who only keeps them for the MONEY?? ya that sure sounds better, Jesus....If it isn't so bad as they showed it, how come TWO THIRDS of the counties in Eastern KY have unemployment rates same as in the Great Depression??

[beferknee]

I'm from KY and actually went to JCHS. And YES it is as bad as they make it out to be. No, not everyone is a druggy, but most "neighborhoods" (aka hollers) appear trashy and very junky. Just going to the Wal-Mart is an experience. Hardly anyone in the town has respect for their appearance. Most women wear not enough clothing and appear trashy, while most men stare at the barely-clad women with their toothless mouths gaping open. I got out of the region to go to college, and I'm never going back.

[Goatboy44spl]

I'm from Eastern Kentucky and yeah, they made it look like shit. You could go to any town or region in America and highlight the junkies and trashy people. There are people like that everywhere. The drugs and poverty are no worse than most anywhere else...

[sos687]

I also consider myself very blessed every other girl I grew up with has one or two kids. I am 22 and I have no children. I am still attending college and working on my education, but the people I'm still in contact w have kids who are already preschool age since they had babies as teenagers. I know other friends who left east ky and went to central ky for college. It is just a bad situation where changes need to be made.

[sos687]

Dellasper, I am on completely the same page as you. The stories we need to hear aren't always the best news. Since when has the news ever really been primarily based on good news? I was raised til 12 in east ky it is VERY poor. What is considered rich in campton is maybe middle class to the rest of the world. I left my mom to live w relatives in florida where I had decent opportunities. Something needs to be done about the poverty there is no denying it. We can't just look away.

[real80smusic]

@sos687, if you are white are you ever going to have kids or are you going to just go to school and let some beaner lady out breed us? and never get a job? in case you didn't know, 1/2 of people that go to college in this dying country do NOT get jobs now. college will not save you.

[sos687]

@real80smusic I do realize that the last few years the economy has been bad. As always I think consumers should stay optimistic, because not spending doesn't help the situation. I have heard that Hispanic/Latino population is going to eventually make white the minority. I'd rather the white minority be respectable than degrade itself by having children too young in poverty. I want my kids to have one stable family with mom and dad. I also don't want to be on welfare. I plan on having kids at 25

[real80smusic]

By all means have them later at 25, but just a little note for you, your eggs will start dying out at 30+ years old and it makes it harder to have kids. It's a biological thing.

Another thing, you will not like being the minority. I had a cousin in a mexican american school and he was beaten up everyday.

[real80smusic]

We either have at least 3-4 kids each or we become the race that is shit on, it's the simple. btw you don't have to live in poverty to have kids. look at that show called the "duggers". they budget and have 20 kids.

anyway, not like the mexicans will care, they will just keep having kids on welfare forever. they want to take over the country. it's a war weather you realize it or not.

[real80smusic]

btw we were all put on this earth to keep our tribes going, weather you realize that or not. it is wired into us biologically. you may not understand that now because of the marxist media conditioning but you will in a few years, if it's not too late. you can still have fun and live an exciting life with kids. only losers with fake tits and fake blonde hair, on tv tell you, you can't.

[sos687]

@real80smusic I have always wanted a family of my own. My life wouldn't be complete without being a mother. I thought on what you said about being a minority which I am atm where I currently live due to the military. Life has always been sort of a pyramid with society/class. The people on the top are fewer, but have influence. I think the same could be true here. Unless they are more educated than us they aren't going to be our bosses. Politically you have to appeal to them as voters more.

[real80smusic]

the appealing to them voting wise is never going to fucking happen. nada, not going to work unless your a self-hating, low esteem, neo-liberal retard who wants amnesty.

they will get the positions via affirmative action. they only need to keep a few white minds alive.

not much of a positive world for your kids i would think. good luck. hope you wake up some day.

[DellaSper]

I don't think D.S. was trying to encourage the stereotype of Appalachian people being "toothless, pill-popping inbreds" like a previous poster stated. I think it was to draw attention to the fact that severe poverty doesn't only exist in "developing nations", but that it exists here in the US. I lived in Southeastern KY when I was a kid and I live in Northern KY as an adult. There IS a huge difference in the economic circumstances IN GENERAL. But I think socialism only keeps it that way.

[DellaSper]

By the way, I lived in a small town on the Ohio river during my teen years and went to a school that had all kinds of luxuries. But the students there were either upper middle class or dirt poor. After the flood of '97, it took such a toll on those living in the town proper and therefore the poorest of the citizens, that drug use/sale went up and # of those on gov't assist. There is an undeniable correlation between poverty and drug use STATISTICALLY. And don't think the gov't doesn't know it.

[sspradlin100]

excuse me but we dont get everyrthing

[HandlebarProduction]

LMFAO!

Its a wonder you didnt film me in the halls going "Ayyyyyye Buuuueeee !!!"

: P

[jock1454789]

This is stupid........I would rather learn about the kids in the poverty part of kentucky so i can help them. Not you idiots who get everythang.

[drpepper102n4]

if you really want to help them take them away from their drug addic parents who

sell their food stamps to get drugs

[mikkibug93]

My school boasts very smart children and a realistic demographic of Perry Co. We went to the state level in academics when I wa sin 8th grade thanks to my cousin and I. We didn't need iMacs and football to get that done. ;) try a more realistic approach next time. I'll be posting a vid of the TRUE CotM soon!

[mikkibug93]

Wow, so this is why my school has one hallway and no football team. xD All the money is going to Johnson Co. I live about two hours from Paintsville and a lot of CotM was shot here. I'll admit it was exaggerated, but the schools in my neck of the woods can't afford state of the art computers and brand new football fields. we can't even get the muddy one. You hardly represent a school of the mountains.

[nukedpenguins224]

Greatness!!

[TUKKER001]

HA! Please! You'll find what? 10 students from this school that are "smart".

How about everyone "takes a trip to the other side of bridge!"

[danielkeeton]

Kentuckians get by. Kentuckians are normal people. I love our culture, our music, our food. Kentucky is amazing.

[elizabethweather33]

All I have to say is...

Thanks

I'm so sick of us "mountain people" getting the bad reputation that we do. The stereotype will never go away if people keep showing only the negative and none of the positive. I'll stop there so we all don't sound like a broken record. haha

Thanks/God bless

[omchomsky]

It's the same where I am. If you filmed the "river" part of our very small Hoosier town, the same claims about poverty, lack of education and dispair could be made.

[SentientCouch]

The simple fact SOME people are doing well in a certain geographic region doesn't mean that there is not a large percentage that aren't.

You wouldn't imagine that poverty exists in New York City if you focused on Manhattan. Go further east out into Brooklyn or north into the Bronx and you'll see exactly what I mean. This "rebuttal" doesn't prove anything. All it proves is that not all of that region lives in abject poverty, something which anybody with a brain can understand.

[katienicholemcmahan]

@SentientCouch

Yeah, you are right about the abject poverty stuff.

BUT that doesn't mean that she had to show that during the whole special, correct? Do you think she could focus on how much we have achieved in our region as well?

[besos808]

I applaud Diane. She showed places in the state that need help and are not getting it. she didnt make them look like lazy poor people. She made them look like people that happen to be in those conditions and want to get out of them. Really really poor people of America are so often looked over. Many people dont even realize how poor some people in America can be...because its America!! It should not be that way. Maybe more can be done with this kind of reporting. Rich schools dont need that help

[Staybay93]

They should of showed stuff like this on the show. Were not all hillbilly retards like they made us out to be. Our New High School they built is totally awesome. Its the newest and probably the nicest in KY. But they only wanted to show the poor and the druggy places.

[ne0nsurf]

basically the morons and toothless people in kentucky tend to be the scotch-irish. it's the germanics that excel.

[djteleboy]

asshole

[password0908]

magoffin has new imac computers in every computer lab, in every room even in the cafeteria they have flat skin tvs... =) johnson does have the nicest football field. =) and not everyone lives that way they proclaimed in eastern ky, however they're alot of poor places that none of us see's.... and i don't think it was an attack on eastern ky, but i do think they need to appologize for portraying it that way.

[Azotobacter88]

This is great. However, I think that the documentary made by Diane is geared to the new administration of trying to focus their attention on the poverty-stricken areas of the Appalachian region. Every state and city in this country has some degree of poverty, and also numerous successes each one can boast, just like this one. I think the documentary is geared not to raise stereotypes, but to raise awareness.

[8592534444]

Hey Diane said you guys were a bunch of pill popping-inbreds. Could she have distorted the story on 20/20 for entertainment purposes?

[GHFan21InuFan21]

She made people from KY look like that, being from southeastern KY, i know people who are on pills, but there are way more people who work for a living and support there families......and i dont know anyone from my area that is inbred......the things that was on the 20/20 story were they people who dont want to help themselves and get a job to support their families

[livetv777]

what your emotional intelligence.have you learn lfe skill?

[moonbowfalls]

I am from Harlan Co. and I think Diane did a disservice to the people of her state. She did not do her job. If she did she would have pointed to her term mountain dew mouth could be attributed to the SUPER FUND site where studies show it is destructive to teeth and has been a factor in that part of Kentucky having a cancer rate higher than the USA rate. Why she did not show how companies have been instrumental in keeping Kentuckians down starting with coal operators so long ago.

[625switch]

Liberals have a really hard time telling the whole story. If they were to show that not everyone is a poor drop out on welfare then they'd have to ask the tougher questions. And liberals will never do that and here's why; they already know what's best for you.

[MigotoOokami]

This isn't about Liberal vs Conservative. Sure the "Liberals" are the ones asking the questions about poverty, and they aren't good about showing the other side of the coin, but there is a reason for that too.

Our system is structured to have a poor, exploited class. So how do we change that is the tough question. The system doesn't want to change, government (liberal and conservative) and business alike.

[625switch]

You're completely wrong. This is a battle between liberal ideals and conservative ones, to change a system or not to change one.

Obama is spending money for programs that states won't be able to afford to keep carrying. Just like when the government lowered the rules on who can get a housing loan, we're setting ourselves up for long term disaster.

Liberals keep poverty people in poverty. How did we develop the largest middle class in the world? Why do people come here and not Canada?

[MigotoOokami]

Easy, Canada is cold. Our large middle class came from liberal policies following WWII.

You're crazy if you're blaming the poverty in America on Obama. The War on Poverty in America began nearly 40 years ago on the doorstep of an Appalachian Kentucky home. I don't like having the gov't borrow more money from my children and grandchildren, but I'd rather the gov't do it for America than a War on Terror. The past 8 yrs produced more debt than ever before. So don't put all the problems on Obama.

[625switch]

It gets cold in America too! News Flash...the liberal policies you speak of were the same liberal policies that were in effect through the entire depression. What if WWII doesn't happen? These liberal policies suddenly start working after 10 years of failing? Right.

The only reason you'd rather have the money not spent against terror is because you haven't had to experience any terror. When the Japs attacked Pearl, we went to war and that killed less people than 9/11.

[MigotoOokami]

For someone who doesn't know me or my experiences you're making strong accusations. I'll have you know that my father and brother are in the army. I experience terror every time they (or other friends) are restationed and the possibility that they could die. I know that this war is not about terrorism. It is a convenient excuse to make sure we control the world's largest oil reserves. I'm sorry if you are one of the few people who is still deluded enough to think that this is about terrorism.

[625switch]

When you or any other person can be killed by a bomb anywhere in the US you don't have to have family in the Army to worry about terror. If 9/11 doesn't happen does the US even invade Afghanistan? 9/11 happened after 8 years of Clinton. 9/11 Clinton's fault? Not in my opinion. When Iraq invaded Kuwait the US was protecting its own interest. I never said oil wasn't the main interest. I don't have a problem with protecting that. You do but hey your kind thought Hitler should be left alone too.

[MigotoOokami]

You've taken the cake for dumbest person I've ever argued with. I'm not sure what "my kind" means, but I sure as hell would have been one of the paratroopers on the ground taking out Hitler's men, thank you very much. Why? B/c I have a conscience.

When was the last US bombing? Who has been dying since we invaded Afg/Iraq? Soldiers dumb ass. So I would say I have to worry, not you who obviously has no family over there. Oil is finite. Let's kill millions until it runs out, OR find an alternative.

[625switch]

It's not my fault you can't understand that people don't have to be in the Army to be afraid of gettng killed. You said "this war is not about terrorism". I disagree with you. However wrong he was Bush thought he was fighting terrorism. Saddam wasn't following the agreements after the war. Much like the Versailles Treaty.

There were people that said FDR wanted war for more reasons that just to help out the Allies.

And I never said you didn't have to worry.

You've misread what I wrote.

[MigotoOokami]

The crazy thing about this is I said this is not about Liberal vs Conservative. It's about a sys that doesn't work that both ideologies are attempting to perpetuate while calling it change.

I'm sorry you can't think outside the box and conceive of a sys other than Liberal or Conservative, but how about you stop the old "wussy liberal" blame game and start thinking of systemic changes that might alleviate the problems of poverty, inadequate education, and environmental degradation plaguing the US

[625switch]

You don't know my view on "poverty, inadequate education, and environmental degradation." If you've got solutions to cure all of those that don't involve turning the USA into a socialist state that hasnt been presented by the left or right let's hear them.

Just stop trying to think that only you can experience terror because you have family and friends that get "restationed" in the military. There are a lot of us that get on planes and work in buildings that know we can be killed too.

[MigotoOokami]

You're the first person I've met that claims to be in constant fear of another terrorist attack. And if you knew anything about war and the Middle East you'd know that war creates breeding grounds for terrorists. It's counter-intuitive to solving the problem. And if you don't have to be in the Army to understand terror, then why did you claim I've never experienced it?

You assume experiencing terror makes everyone want to go to war, which is just wrong.

[625switch]

I still can't find where I said "constant" but you've been misquoting me so why stop now, right? Oh, so if we stop invading middle east countries that will keep all terrorist groups out of the middle east. You're just trying to be funny right? Which terrorist group didn't have a presence in the middle east before the US invaded Iraq?

Fear of terror is not the same as experiencing an actual terrorist attack. Show me where I said that experiencing terror makes everyone want to go to war.

[MigotoOokami]

Sure I don't know you're position, but that didn't stop you from making blanket accusations toward me. There has to be some form of government regulation of big business and environmental policy that is actually enforced, as well as social welfare programs. As far as I can tell, socialized democracy is the best people have come up with so far. America just sucks at it (e.g. Finland, Holland), but like any human institution there are problems. Power attracts the corruptible.

[625switch]

Yes. There has to be some form of government regulation, enforcement, and social welfare. And that is exactly the debate.; how much of each should we have? We don't live in Finland or Holland and we don't have the same situations. Let's see what Finland does if they get 13 million illegal aliens to their country.

Either way, I don't want to live in a place where you can be put in jail for a film that you make just because I don't agree with it. Like Geer Wilders. I want freedom of speech.

[MigotoOokami]

I'm not sure how freedom of speech connects to social welfare programs, but OK, you will only ever live in America. That's fine, but we can learn from the way other people do things. It's called take the good, leave the bad.

I said "environmental policy that is actually enforced", which we barely have and not at all where I live. As far as gov't regulation of big business, aren't the problems in the bank industry and fraud b/c we loosened regulations. People take advantage of whatever they can.

[625switch]

Well I would say it connects in that once you start restricting a persons right to speak their view point you're starting down a slippery slope. You're right. People will take advantage of whatever they can. And that process is often cloaked with someone else telling us one thing to achieve another. Which this back around to the media. They have lost their focus by spinning things the way they want. If people in Kentucky are so bad off then where is George Clooney? Where's that story?

[MigotoOokami]

I know what's wrong w/not having freedom of speech. I'm saying how does having a welfare system connect to restricting freedom of speech. I'm going to spend my life in rural America and on reservations b/c I don't have to leave America to find people who need help. I've always wondered why no celebrities focus on the problems we have at home, but that's their deal. You can't expect news to show you the important stuff. My problem w/this piece is that she didn't show how poverty happens w/wealth.

[625switch]

We may not expect the news to show us the important stuff but that doesn't mean we can't try to demand it. I saw we can demand better from our news. Doesn't mean we'll get it but they should be called out when needed. The plan of tearing down the top because you want to help the bottom doesn't work. Some rich will abuse their position the way my 31yr old neighbor uses his disability check to sell & buy drugs. Regarding speech, where did I say welfare restricts free speech? Not sure I said that.

[MigotoOokami]

Read back over your comments regarding Finland and the Netherlands, maybe you'll see where I might have inferred a connection btwn the two from your implication.

I'd like the news to show me the good stuff, but the only way that will happen is if we stop watching what they're showing, not just asking.

I didn't say we should tear down the top. No one has, but what programs like this do is ignore the connection btwn exploitation & wealth. Not everyone in KY lives like either of these scenarios.

[MigotoOokami]

And if you'll notice the problems today are following a conservative regime. And if you noticed, I wasn't advocating one ideal over the other. What I'm saying is neither set of ideals is working b/c in the end neither side really wants to change our system.

[625switch]

So the problems after the Carter Admiinstration, was all because of liberal policies then. And the middle class you say was because of the liberal policies. Did this include the cost of fighting a World War? What you fail to realize is people want "change". But whose change do they want? Your change or my change. They are different things!

[friendofthedevil]

I understand that you guys don't want to be stereotyped as something you aren't, but the truth is much of eastern kentucky is very poor. It actually makes me sad to see that one school has so many resources when other schools are struggling so much.

Diane Sawyer didn't film you guys because you don't need any help--you're already doing great.

That said, I agree that Appalachia is WAY too stereotyped and Diane Sawyer is in someways unintentionally continuing that myth.

[melanie6557]

But actually Diane Sawyer did film us....the school that boy ( i won't say names) played football at was Johnson Central. She took two years of footage of our school and used hardly any of it.

[friendofthedevil]

okay. Then you're right, she should have pointed out how lucky he was to go to such a well-equipped school.

But, it's still depressing that a school can be so well-equipped, yet a relatively high number of people around there still are not doing well. Same thing happens in the city I'm from, just to a lesser degree.

So she skewed things. But I'll say, as I did before, that she wasn't trying to represent all of KY, but rather those who need the most help.

But I see where you're coming from.

[bendover185]

1:40

School tie lawlz

[akjjbm]

This is great! It's about time people see what appalachia is really about.  It's not all drugs, drop-outs, and welfare!

[fAnGeDkOrNfAn]

amen

[sneakerfetish]

No No No!! Don't let the world know about what's really going on here in KY!! Thanks for posting this!! Diane Sawyer's 20/20 show was a total disgrace to us all. There are people in poverty everywhere and she chose her story so poorly...what a disgrace!  Congrats on the FPS and Academic teams accomplishments...well done. Great clip folks...well done!!