the trail of tears

As you know, I became afraid to talk about stuff at work in this context after that article about the intern who got fired for blogging. I just can't help myself this time. This is me *extending arms wide out* throwing caution to the wind.

Over the last week I have seen a lot of personally, professionally, politically passionate people come under attack basically for exercising their rights as American citizens.

It all started last Tuesday when we discovered that a trail-paving project, which had been voted down, had started anyway in a surreptious fashion. Folks were understandably outraged. A few people I know were involved in discussion for peaceful ways to protest, and they, along with other citizens who don't work here, decided that they would have a picnic on the trail. You really can't get much milder than that.

Then this article was published yesterday with the lead line "Legislator defends paving trail: blames Appalshop - 'They are a bunch of old hippies, and they're the worst plague that's ever been in eastern Kentucky. I challenge them to tell me one positive thing they've done for us.'"
http://www.harlandaily.com/articles/2006/06/19/news/local_news/news9772.txt

Thankfully, as far as I can tell, most of the community and the media understand this to be an unfounded attack, as this is not an organizational action, but rather a few concerned citizens working on their own time and, in fact, through a different group:
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?s=5050583

I am amazed and astounded by this situation on so many levels. First and foremost, as I've only been living in Kentucky for less than a month, it's very hard for me to understand and appreciate the various levels of personal relationships, politics, and history that would have led up to this point. I can tell you this though, old hippies or not (and trust me, I'll claim to be one in solidarity if not one in actuality), the people I work with here are the exact opposite of everything this politician has accused them of.

When he says that they strive to maintain stereotypes of Appalachia, in fact they empower, uplift, bring to light, and celebrate the truth of Appalachia, while mining the depths of its lies. When he says that they want to keep the region economically oppressed in order to seek funding, in fact, as I understand it, this man has done his best to cut Appalshop's funding.

(6/29) After a week of quiet, here's another editorial that just came out...http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006606280489

There's something about this local situation that has echoes of familiarity in the national debate: the ability to turn on the cooker and the fan, pour in the fine grains of truth's opposite, and spin them out into long, sugary threads that are gathered, and repackaged into cotton candy--something that looks fun, but is really quite bad for you.

So, stand with me, friends, let your glass eye roll to the back of your head while shaking your fists, and yell out across the mountains..."Constant vigilance!"