Today is I Love Mountains Day (kftc.org/love). Right now, everyone’s rallying in Frankfort in support of the stream saver bill and against mountaintop removal. It’s a time to celebrate pride and advocacy, and the mountains.
It’s too bad Diane Sawyer couldn’t find a 20/20 “EXCLUSIVE REPORT” in this, as opposed to last Friday’s ABC “special” segment, “Children of the Mountains.”
Alert Reader Walt (in Austin), asks, “What’s the reaction in Kentucky?…I don’t think it had anything new to offer and should have, especially after they boiled two years down to one hour. It came off as just another journey among the reliably poor.”
Kakie Urch (page 5 of this week’s Ace) calls it “Mountain Dew Comes to the Cumberlands.”
And that’s all it was.
What was the point? What was the “news?” That people in Kentucky get bad dental care, and drink too much pop (Pepsi in sippy cups, to be specific)? As Walt adds, “you left out drugs — drink pop and take drugs and smoke.”
Oh, and lots of churchin’ (and bad hymn singing).
That’s not to suggest Diane (who proudly asserted her native Kentuckian credentials in promoting the show) lied. Eastern Kentucky does have problems with meth and prescription drugs and churchin’ and smokin’ and a lack of economic opportunity, and yes, Mountain Dew (a demon drink we at Ace have been known to imbibe).
But what was the STORY? There was just no there, there.
You can learn more about the real “children of the mountains” from people like kftc.org.
