Working in the sun devours your energy. I've been bled dry today. Lack of food and water only exacerbates this effect. I don't have a dime to my name, but if I did I still wouldn't patronize these vendors, selling astronomically overpriced chow. Hang-on...I'm going to vomit in the garbage can--Capitalism does this to me.
What happened to sharing, lending a hand, providing opportunities to fulfill Dreams? I don't want a fucking handout. I'm not greedy, I don't want more than I need. I just want to provide for my family. Citizens of Appalachia deserve more opportunities than mining coal or flipping burgers.
I spill my blood--it forms into words. Does anyone care? Does anyone appreciate Dreams? Atrophy has ruined America's Imagination. If you don't use it, what the fuck do you think will happen?
How many of you wake-up to work a superfluous job you fucking hate? You receive bare-bones compensation. You realize that your job isn't necessary to Earth, yet you have to put food on the table.
Can we the people say Fuck This! Can we say Fuck watching TV! Fuck eating fast-food! Fuck prescription pills! Fuck Wal-Mart!
Small businesses are being driven into the dirt. Where are the gardens? Where are the farms?
We can make our own clothes w/ hemp. Grow our own food, brew our own wine and beer. We can do anything for ourselves. America, what happened to self-reliance? It is nearly impossible w/o some money upfront. And this saddens me to no end.
Everything is a spectacle. We are bludgeoned w/ advertisements. Buy. Consume. It is difficult to know what to do in such a chaotic maze. It is hard not to feel trapped--and this is wrong. I live in some of the oldest mountain ranges on Earth. Open space and freedom are available everywhere. And Beauty is so overt here that I believe people are sick of it. They must be. They rape the land, and give nothing back. Where is Balance?
America, get hungry for more than the bullshit you are fed. The news is skewed. Beware of agendas, and the motivations behind them. I may have long hair and want to play in the river all day w/ my beautiful family, but I'm not stupid nor lazy, nor cynical. Imagine how difficult it is to remain optimistic in this carnival of celebrity adoration, religious and political propaganda, and social inequality. My Voice may be great, but my platform is miniature--mass-media owns TV, magazines, radio...
The Shriners do good work. It is for a good cause. Realize tho, that Hillbilly Days is just another spectacle to behold. Overpriced food. Drunken and rowdy crowds mixed w/ zombies in a pill-stupor. And there are some calm, quiet, happy, polite folks roaming around as well. I just want some beans and cornbread, some boiled taters and soy milk. Fuck the fried oreos and chicken-on-a-stick! If you want that, you can fucking have it. My question is: Why the fuck do we all have to live here together?
I dream of a solitary island for my family to live. We would have to sustain this island ourselves. But it would be untouched by Man's calumny and desecration. Imagine it--raw and pure! Ours to form. For any ailment, Nature provides a cure. For hunger, fruit trees and wild game. For sickness, herbs and roots for elixirs of health. Nothing is beyond our ability. If we can imagine it, we can create it. Fuck your cynicism! I'm trying to improve Earth. Take a stand, and fight the poison!
Alright. One final momento:
Pikeville, Kentucky
Rapes Mountains
For Profit
I agree. I would Love to have a completely self sufficient farm, where all I would have to sell is enough to buy clothes, power and the like. Hillbilly days is nothing but a joke. Hillbillies should be proud of the heritage of being hardworking individuals and not allow exploitation of an image of drunken morons.
ReplyDeleteI used to feel this way about Hillbilly Days, but have learned to appreciate laughing at ourselves and the stereotype the world squeezed us into for so long that is slowly dying with ignorance. There are a great many around the world now who are concerned with Appalachia, its people, and its plight and want to help. Also, it is for a good cause, I myself having benefitted greatly from the Shriners Hospital in Lexington. There is surprisingly little that supports the actual hospitals, since most of the Shriners' fund raising efforts go to their temples and religion rather than those vital centers that improve the quality of life for thousands of children around of the globe, and often serve as the places where they are literally raised while undergoing treatment, all without cost of any kind to the patients or their families. So it is an extremely important event in that respect, and attracts a global attendance of tourists to the region, which can only help toward diversifying the economy and raising worldwide interest in Appalachia beyond coal production. Of course, everyone knows that the city cheats the Shriners out of the majority of the revenue gained by the festival, and the Shriners have been complaining in recent years and threatening to take it to Prestonsburg or Paintsville where they expect to get their full share of the profits, since it is meant to be a benefit gig. But they do receive some of it every year, and every penny is needed, not only for the children they directly treat, but also for the medical personnel they train which will later treat those children who have outgrown the requirements stipulated by the hospital and therefore graduated from them. I have also experienced the benefit of such training, since with considerable searching I was thus able to locate and become a patient of a team of doctors wherein at least some members helped to treat me as a child and this has made all the difference in staving off paralysis as long as possible for me and immeasurably contributed to improved and longer quality of life. THe best advantage of this is that this team practices locally and I do not have to make regular, exhausting trips to Lexington. All of this lengthy comment is simply to ask you to consider the benefits of the festival, without which, I admit, would be a most deplorable affair. Before passing judgement, it is important to carefully study all perspectives and aspects of a matter, don't you agree?
ReplyDelete