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Wise County, Va.
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Anonymous
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Anyone see this video on WP online? I was deeply depressed and moved by this, the throngs of poor people with rotting teeth and other ailments who wait online in a field overnight for health care, esp. the 2-year-old with the rotten teeth. I feel fortunate myself -- and a little guilty -- that I don't have these problems. Yet, I don't know how people do it. I had to pay 400 bucks for a partial crown after my tooth cracked. I pay 40 bucks for a routine GYN visit.
These are hard-working folks -- coal-miners, former factory workers. Yet, part of me also says, "keep voting Republican, dipsticks!" Somehow we've demonized labor unions and protectionism and care more about gays and guns. The GOP has really run a number on working people. For a country as advanced and prosperous as ours, to be in this situation is appalling. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/interactives/healingfields/?hpid=multimedia1&hpv=local |
Anonymous
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I saw this, but not for the first time. There was something on TV about this group earlier in the year (can't remember on what channel). It was truly heart-breaking and eye-opening for me. You hear about people without health-care, but if you live around here, you almost never actually spend time with anyone like that. Of course I imagine that a lot of recent immigrants also lack health-care...
I also find it truly inspiring that on so little money, so much can be done and I wish there were a way to replicate this kind of program nation-wide. |
Anonymous
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I actually have spent a fair amount of time (for a NoVa resident anyway) in Wise County. Yes health care is sorely lacking. More concerning, however, is the poor educational opportunities and the flight of those who did get an education (UVA-Wise anyone) from the area because the lack of job prospects. Left behind are the uneducated, low skilled adults for whom the new Super WalMart was a boon.
I am glad this non-profit group recognizes the underserved here in the US. Sadly, I read that one of the programs that got axed in Kaine's budget cuts was the state incentive for medical personnel to locate in these depressed areas. If you have 100K plus in medical school loans, and your potential clients in Wise county are almost all on govt. assistance if they have any assistance at all, it is a no brainer that no one wants to establish a practice there. As for the "keep voting Republican, dipsticks!" , Wise County was very receptive to Obama and voted for Warner. It isn't a Democrat vs Republican issue. It is an issue of finding a way to provide educational opportunities AND job opportunities for the region. Sadly, the 40+ year olds are probably already lost to the process, but the youngsters need qualified teachers, expectations place upon them, and opportunities in front of them to make real change possible. |
Anonymous
Actually Wise County went overwhelmingly for McCain (65-32). I wouldn't call that "receptive." Sure, kudos to Warner for attempting to speak NASCAR-ese in SW Virginia and being pretty non-partisan and friendly to Republican issues. But it most certainly is a democrat v. republican issue. The Republicans have gotten poor, left-behind white rural voters (look at any electoral map) to ignore their own economic interests and vote on perceived "values" issues and wedge issues (God, the flag, gays, abortion, race). Opportunity comes when you stop rewarding companies for shipping jobs to Mexico and start caring about the American WORKER and not the corporate execs. These people in rural Virginia have seen their jobs disappear and no one gives a damn. |
Anonymous
So how are we to proceed? With a 65-32 vote favoring the Republicans, is this poverty and dying (local) economy something the locals in rural VA are perpetuating? Republicans are pro-business, pro-international trade. Do these brand of Republicans even understand who or what they are voting for? I don't think killing trade will do any economy any good. Protectionism made the Great Depression that much worse. We can also look to the consequences of the economies of South America in the 1970s when the quality of locally produced goods went down the toilet in the absence of competition. |
Anonymous
Polls were pretty close until the last two weeks when Obama's stance on coal became a huge local issue. 9:33 - have you ever been to Wise County? The people are lovely, but by a large majority do not have the education or training for other than manual labor, or low skilled jobs. There are warehouse and trucking jobs in the Tri-Cities area - but Wise is pretty off the beaten track. Crutchfield has a facility in Norton - those jobs on the 800 number order desk, paying barely more than minimum wage, are highly prized! I stand behind my original assertion that it is a training and education issue that holds the area back - not a Republican vs Democrat issue. Until you have a workforce that can transition from the coal industry and rural/agrarian economy to what the the 21st Century workforce needs (computer skills, adequate oral and written communications skills, math skills) the people will remain poor - and poor people do not have health insurance. As someone who has actually spent time in this community, handouts are not what they want. They do not want you to give them fish, but rather teach them (or at least their children) to fish. |
Anonymous
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anybody have any ideas on improving educational standards in poorer areas, whether it be in the inner city or rural outposts, since there is a direct correlation between property tax and better levels of education in the public school system. How do you provide quality public education to children where the property tax revenues are too low to support a higher caliber school system?
I hadn't given it any thought until my DH pointed out that the quality of education is as high in poor neighborhoods as in rich neighborhoods in his country because the national government administers it. |
Anonymous
Plenty of people propose larger scale funding - either state level or national level. Those in the 'good' school districts always scream and holler. Look at the fight in VA over transportation dollars. NoVa gets back something like $0.65 in improvements for every $1 that gets sent to Richmond. I can tell you the roads are excellent in Wise county  58A is two lanes each directions - folks that travel Rt. 15 in Northern VA - or even parts of 29 - would be thrilled to have that.
State programs for educators along the lines of the rural doctors incentive program that VA just canceled are another good way to get qualified teachers into poorer communities. There are similar programs in urban areas too. These are not direct funding to the school systems, but rather a 'Peace Corps' like program for 4 - 6 years that forgives college debt. Distance learning programs whereby AP classes can be offered in rural areas too small or too poor to pay for the qualified instructors are another good idea. The VA Standards of Learning are an attempt to hold schools accountable for meeting basic educational objectives. Wise county has made great strides in the last decade - 85% of elementary students meet Reading SOLs and 90+% are proficient in Math. Sadly, most students who do go to college do so outside the region (UVA Wise is a small ~2000 student campus) and never return. Those left behind, as a consequence, are in general the lower achieving portion of the population. Virginia Medical School Loan Repayment Programs
Is the description of the program recently canceled due to budget concerns. Rural poverty, not just in Wise County, is a stubborn problem, difficult to grapple with, and multi-faceted. |
Anonymous
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I am from Southwest Virginia and for those of us who have spent time there, it is especially heartbreaking. Many of these people are hard-working, but just do not have the skills or the education for better opportunities. What is harder to overcome is that many people have ties to the area or just are not even exposed to what opportunities there are beyond the mines.
I think it is very small-minded to call these folks dipshits. This is definitely not a Republican/Democrat issue. Virginia and West Virginia (more recently) used to be strongly Democratic-leaning. The Democratic party lost touch with the common man and lost many of the unions (many miners are unionized). Also, it became about social issues and the Republicans did a better job of painting the Dems as being "left-wing" and "scary". I would like to see the Dems reach out more to their former base. Obama definitely did a good job with that and Warner is a great example of someone who connects with normal people. It helps he came from a similar working class background. This is from a Democrat originally from Southwest Virginia. I would like to think my relatives and I are not dipshits. |
Anonymous
| PP here - sorry - just reread your post. I know you said dipstick, but I must have translated into what you really meant and I still think it is small-minded. |
Anonymous
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Listen, I'm the "dipstick" poster. Don't be so sensitive. I wasn't only referring to SW Virginia. I come from a long line of dipsticks myself, past and present. Rural voters have a serious problem. Whether they live in rural Virginia or rural Kansas. If they demanded from their leaders real policy changes and demanded that something, anything, be done about healthcare, it would happen. But they aren't. They are getting their panties in a wad over gay marriage or hating atheists or whatever and they are siding with the uber-wealthy and the corporate fatcats who want to screw them over. It's true.
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Anonymous
You've hit it right on the head, but I think that the conservatives generally take advantage of the uneducated by diverting their attention from the real issues they SHOULD be worrying about. Instead they cleverly focus their attention on more irrelevant social issues like abortion or gay marriage. OK, so maybe they are important to some people, but I am pretty sure that when people are struggling to feed their children, gay marriage is probably not at the top of their list of concerns (or shouldn't be!). This is actually a really interesting conversation that I would love to explore more. |
Anonymous
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Anti-Dipstick pister here. PP - totally agree. When you are working 80 hours a week a two jobs, one of them likely Wal-Mart, and you are not exposed to anyone who has much education or exposure to life out of the "hollers", it is easy for schister politicians to confuse you into focusing on the wrong things. This gets socialized in unless kids are exposed to other ideas.
The Dems don't visit Wise, so they don't have an opportunity to turn things around. We let the common people go a few decades ago. It is time to spend the time to bring them back to a party who will help them. I think it is easy for those of us who live in relative comfort, with good salaries, reliable childcare, top schools, extra help around the house, and supportive partners to judge the lives of people who are less fortunate. Don't judge until you spend time or money volunteering there and helping turn things around. My family has donated many hours in SWVA through Habitat, rural medical outreach, NAACP, and schools. In times like these, we need to reach out even more in these underserved areas. |
Anonymous
Here's the rub. To the two pps above, abortion or gay marriage are irrelevant - to a Southern Baptist warehouse worker in SW Virigina this couldn't be further from the truth. Faith in a very real way defines their world view, and they don't want their little children attending their 1st grade teacher's wedding to another woman. It is extremely elitist to simply dismiss them and their world view as "dipshits" or whatever. They are NOT looking for handouts; they want the opportunity to work and earn a fair living. The Dems inclination to give money, govt. money, to every social problem simply does not compute to them. Add fear that what they see as liberal tree-huggers will kill the coal industry, and there you go. They are voting their values and their pocket book, whether you realize it or not. If you want to change their hearts and minds, don't dismiss them. Don't tell them how stupid they are. Rather, provide them opportunities, education, jobs, and see what happens! |
Anonymous
I never said these SW Virginians weren't hard-working. The original post (which was mine) was about the lack of healthcare in an advanced country like ours. The people interviewed by the WaPo who were waiting in line for hours and hours have jobs in coalmines or wherever. But they can't afford healthcare and if they (and we) don't demand a change, they'll continue to have their teeth rot out of their heads and die prematurely from treatable conditions. So when they are waiting in line for free healthcare? Isn't that a handout? Sounds like they're open to handouts to me. They (by and large) support a party (and a nominee) who voted against the reauth. of SCHIP, children's health insurance. Do you think these people are too "proud" to accept subsidized health care for their kids? I don't. As for being "elitist," these discussions always turn out this way. If you call like you see it -- that voters aren't voting in their own interest -- you're an "elitist" who doesn't understand. I grew up in PG county -- my family are shitkickers in Southern Maryland. Somehow pointing out that these people -- my fellow rednecks and yes, dipsticks -- are being hoodwinked makes me an "elitist." Excuse while I go get my soy, half-caf free-range, free trade shade latte. |