Every American Voter Should Read One Of These Books Before November 5, 2024!

 

“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." Thomas Paine  

 

I first began posting these book lists sometime shortly after it became apparent to most intelligent, politically aware people in America that TRAITOR Trump was just that, a TRAITOR, nothing more, nothing less.  He was that long before I ever posted one of these reading lists.  He is still a TRAITOR today.  He will still be a TRAITOR on the day he dies and finally leaves America and Americans to live in peace after he has destroyed everything he can on the way.  It is imperative, if America is to remain a democracy, that TRAITOR Trump must never be allowed anywhere near the White House or any other active component of government in this country.  He is unfit to hold any position of public trust at any level, all the way down to dogcatcher and constable in a small, poverty stricken district.  Do both yourself and the country a much needed favor and read at least one of these books on this list before you vote on November 5, 2024.  This is an election between Good and Evil, Patriotism and TREASON, Peace and Total Destruction of Everything Valuable in America.   

 

On Democracy by Timothy Snyder  This is Timothy Snyder's latest book, just having been releases a short while ago.  Like everything Snyder writes, it is described as being a book which "will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish."  It is a continuation of Snyder's deep concerns and fears for America and American Democracy if the voters of this country allow TRAITOR Trump to return to another TREASONOUS occupation of the White House.  In my opinion, Snyder is the greatest historian and historical writer in America today.  He is a professor of history at Yale University in an endowed chair and still manages to write at least one important book a year or more.  This is the link to his official website.  Anything which Snyder writes is a must read for any citizen of America who wishes to see our Democracy survive.  I will add a couple of his other books below with less commentary about them.  Just assume if he wrote it, you need to read it. 

 

The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump Edited by Bandy Lee, M. D. I reviewed this book here.  This is one of those books that every reasonably intelligent citizen of this country should read.  I have been promoting this book ever since the day the initial publicity campaign began when it was released.  This book was written in individual articles by 27 of the best, best known, most experienced, most respected psychiatrists in the country and edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M. D. who is a psychiatrist and professor at Yale University.  Her credentials are incredible and so is this book.  Just as the letter to the senate from 2,400 law professors should have put an end to the legal career of Brett Kavanaugh, this book should have put an end to the public life of TRAITOR Trump.  Read this book even if you do not choose to read another book on this list or another book of any kind for the rest of your life. Do not let the fact that it is written by a bevy of psychiatrists deter you from reading it.  When you are done you will have a far better understanding of the serious and danger mental illness of TRAITOR Trump. 

 

The Road To Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder  This is Snyder's most recent book excluding the release last month of his latest, On Freedom.  The Road To Unfreedom is an excellent and well documented study of how Fascism has been spread by Russia and other countries in Eastern Europe.  It discusses Putin's dream of putting together a Russian empire extending all the way from Vladivostok to Lisbon covering most of Eastern Europe and Northern Asia.  Do not for a minute believe TRAITOR Trump when he tells you that he could "stop the war in Ukraine before" he took office if he should actually win an American election for the first time in his life.  Putin has expressed this plan for quite a few years in magazine and newspaper articles published under his name, in public speeches, and in all forms of media.  His attempt to subjugate Ukraine is geared toward giving Russia an open door to proceed further in this plan.  If he is allowed to overpower Ukraine, Poland will be next.  World War 3 will have begun and Putin will proceed until he is forcefully stopped, if that is even possible at that point.  

 

On Call by Anthony Fauci, M. D.  is the recently published memoir of Dr. Fauci who recently retired as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.  He was also the public face of the scientific fight against Covid and was daily defamed, insulted, minimized, and abused by TRAITOR Trump who is not now and never was fit to be a pimple on Dr. Fauci's ass.   More than 1million innocent American victims of Covid died because TRAITOR Trump refused to do anything to stop the pandemic after being informed by the intelligence and healthcare communities in January and February 2020 that the pandemic was coming and could destroy the country.  If NIH and the CDC had been allowed to fully do their jobs in early 2020, Covid would have been far less destructive and would have been confronted and dealt with successfully far sooner if TRAITOR Trump had not attempted to hamper every effort the scientific community made to do their jobs.  How do I know this?  For 5 years in the middle to late 1990's I spent many days at NIH.  My wife was a patient there during that period and we traveled there 2 or 3 times a year for a week at a time during that 5 year period.  So did my father-in-law.  I have never met Dr. Fauci, but I have met one other chair of an institute there.  I know NIH.  I have known people there at every level of employment from grounds keepers, food service workers, nurses, research staff, doctors, and one director of an institute.  Every one of them is a hero working daily in their own unique ways to help save the world.  If you don't read another word of Dr. Fauci's book read the section on Covid 19 and the pandemic which is only 67 pages long and will show you exactly what a TRAITOR TRAITOR Trump is and exactly what heroes the men and women of NIH  are.  It will also give you a great deal of insight into how greatly TRAITOR Trump has damaged this country morally and ethically over the last 10 years.

 

 Fascism by Madeleine Albright  Former Secretary of State Albright's book has been postively reviewed by most of the media people who have read it.  Secretary Albright was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the US to become our first female Secretary of State and one of our best.  This is her description of a Fascist: "A Fascist is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”  There is no more accurate description of TRAITOR Trump.  Read this book and if you finish it before I do send me an e-mail or a comment on this blog post.

 

  
Trump/Russia by Seth Hettena  This book provides an excellently researched timeline of the more than 30 year history of interactions between TRAITOR Trump and Russia.  Hettena's reputation as a reporter, researcher, and writer are excellent.  He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and that, in itself, is a recommendation of his mind and ability to function successfully in a high pressure environment.

 

 

The Restless Wave by John McCain  "Worse misfits have not been seen in a White House since William Taft got stuck in his bathtub."  (John McCain, p. 327)  When I read that sentence in John McCain's last book, I laughed out loud.  I have not reviewed this book yet, and have a few pages left to read before I finish it but this book is the most pleasant surprise I have had in a book in quite some time.  I began reading it since McCain has recently died and he had up put some level of public resistance to TRAITOR Trump.  However, in 2016, he had failed to go the full mile and endorse Hillary Clinton for president instead of just refusing to endorse TRAITOR Trump. Yet this book is far more positive about Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama than toward TRAITOR Trump.  I had begun the book expecting to hear a pretty standard espousal of fairly Right Wing Repugnican politics and a play by play of McCain's career.  But the book is often very honest about McCain's serious misgivings, distrust, and opposition to TRAITOR Trump.  But once again, he fell short of taking the full step and calling a spade a spade.  But the book is very well worth reading.   

 

The Plot To Destroy America by Malcolm Nance Malcolm Nance is a career US Navy man and the author of several books on counter terrorism, intelligence, national security, and Islamic extremism.  He is a trained intelligence expert and cryptologist.  His unique perspective and ability to write about what he knows without endangering his security clearance or his reputation is remarkable.  Malcolm Nance is the kind of person you could expect someday to be a national security adviser to the next duly elected, legitimate administration to occupy the White House.

Russian Roulette by Michael Issikoff & David Corn  These two authors are writers for Yahoo News and Mother Jones Magazine respectively.  This book is another examination of the Russian interference in the 2016 election.  While I consider Mother Jones to be a far more reputable source of news than Yahoo, these two authors also have excellent reputations and their work is well respected.

Fear by Bob Woodward Bob Woodward needs no introductions anywhere in the world.  He is one of the two men who broke the story of the Watergate Conspiracy and eventually could be said to have helped bring about the resignation of Richard Nixon.  His reputation is flawless and he has steadily written political works since the 1970's.  Nearly all his books, more than a dozen, have been best sellers and above average works.  His ability to develop sources deep within sheltered organizations was first seen in the information he and his co-author Carl Bernstein obtained from Deep Throat who eventually revealed himself as a Deputy Director of The FBI.  This might be the first book some of you read or may have already read.  Tell me about it if you have.

The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy by Greg Miller This book was written by Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post reporter Greg Miller.  No author should ever need to have their resume bolstered after having been employed at the best newspaper in the nation and winning a Pulitzer Prize.  Place this book high on your list of works to be read as I have.  I can't wait to get to it and neither should you. 

Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever by Rick Wilson  Numerous reputable Republicans who desire to keep their reputations intact have spoken out over the last three years about the crimes and ignorance of TRAITOR Trump.  Many have left the Republican Party over his actions.  The rest should do the same.  Rick Wilson has a more than thirty year career as a Republican political operative and worked in the Department of Defense under Dick Cheney.  His resume and his political roots make this book worth examining. 

House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger Craig Unger has a Harvard education and a growing list of books written primarily about connections between Republican politicians and less than desirable partners. This book examines the long history between TRAITOR Trump and the Russian Mafia whose upper echelon members own many of the apartments in Trump Tower.  Nothing more need be said about that connection when you look at the list of business deals and money laundering schemes which have been perpetrated between these prinicpals. This book seems to be worth the time to read it.  Let me know what you think if you get to it before I do. 

 

 

Collusion Secret Meetings, Dirty Money And How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding  I have reviewed this book here.  This is the first historical book that I read about the crimes of the TRAITOR Trump. It was well worth the experience and has often guided me in my choices about other subsequent reading.  Luke Harding is a writer for The Guardian and is a tremendous writer, researcher, and fact finder in the very dangerous world of international politics.  He and his colleagues are on that list of journalists whom every American citizen should read regularly.  This book goes a very long way to explain and corroborate the information contained in the Steele Dossier which literally began the revelations about the crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  This book also does a great job of putting the timeline of the crimes of TRAITOR Trump into a logical frame for the less aware reader.  This book "reads like a spy novel" is what my friend and follower of this blog Steve Sargent said about it.  My response to that was "it is a spy novel". However, it is also the farthest thing in the world from fiction.  

Facts And Fears by James Clapper This book continues James Clapper's public denunciation of the crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  I have reviewed it here.  The one glaring shortcoming in the book is the use of acronyms for literally dozens of branches of the federal government and international agencies which Mr. Clapper worked with or for during his lifetime of public service.  For the person not well versed in the federal bureaucracy, this use of hundreds of acronyms is confusing and irritating in spite of the insertion of a list of full names in the back of the book.  But this book is one of the first on the list that I would suggest that you read.  It is a fine historical perspective on American intelligence efforts over the last forty years and brutally honest, especially so about the Russian collusion and hacking of our 2016 election.   

A Higher Loyalty Truth Lies And Leadership by James Comey  First and foremost, I want to say that this book is about James Comey and his life of public service much more than it is about his firing and public victimization by TRAITOR Trump.  I have reviewed it here.  This book, just as is true of James Clapper's is much more about facts and history than it is about any emotion the author might feel toward the current illegal occupant of the White House.  It is an excellent piece of work which I do not believe would have ever been written if Mr. Comey had not felt that it was his duty as a patriot and lifetime public servant to do so because of the criminality of TRAITOR Trump.  Read it!  Learn from it!  Familiarize yourself with and utilize the truths it contains. 

 

United States Constitution The US Constitution and individual rights will be under attack from the first second the Republicans take control of the US government.  Donald Trump has already, on numerous occasions, stated a desire to restrict freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and all rights of Muslim citizens and immigrants in general.  Every citizen should have a solid understanding of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.  Every citizen should also be willing to stand up and speak out in defense of these basic principles of American Democracy at any time Trump or his generally uneducated, ignorant, and unprincipled followers make attacks on these concepts.  The Capitol Net publishes pocket copies of the Constitution and many other important American political documents which are cheap and easily ordered from their web site.   Capitol Net will actually send you a free pocket copy of the Constitution upon request. Get a copy, read it, study it, understand it, carry it with you wherever you go, and be prepared to confront ignorance about the foundations of American Democracy wherever you encounter it. 

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay Do not ever listen to and accept the opinion of another about what the Founding Fathers thought, intended, or wanted.  Read what they said for yourself and form your own opinion.  

"Mein Kampf" by Adolph Hitler Donald Trump's campaign was a carbon copy of the campaign Hitler used to gain power in Germany.  One of Trump's ex-wives has stated that he kept a copy of Hitler's speeches by his bed.  Many of the same techniques Adolph Hitler and Vladimir Putin have used to gain and maintain power are the same being used by Donald Trump today and that use is not accidental. The Big Lie is being used every day by TRAITOR Trump just as it was used by Adolph Hitler.  It is deliberate emulation of Adolph Hitler. 

Black Earth The Holocaust As History And Warning by Timothy Snyder One of the most cogent quotations from history comes from the philosopher George Santayana:  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  Donald Trump is backed by a coalition of extremist groups ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to the American Nazi Party.  Trump has consistently refused to condemn them, their ideologies, or their actions.  Here is a link to a great story from Mother Jones about those groups.  Most of the followers of these groups are psychologically very similar to the German citizens who became Hitler's Brown Shirts and SS Troopers.  And the most important thing to remember about the Germans who carried out Adolph Hitler's crimes against humanity is that before Adolph Hitler rose to power those people were considered to be ordinary German citizens just as most of Trump's followers would have us believe they are ordinary American citizens.  This book by Timothy Snyder looks at the Holocaust both as a historical event and as an event that could be repeated if the people of today do not heed the warnings provided by the Holocaust.  This is one of the most important books to have been written in the last 25 years. 

Stubborn Twig: Three Generations In The Life Of A Japanese American Family For those of you who do not believe that anything remotely resembling the crimes of the Holocaust could happen in America, this book is a must read as Donald Trump rises to power after having preached disrespect, disregard, and unconstitutional labeling of groups in America such as the media, Muslims and immigrants.  It details the life of a very successful and patriotic Japanese American family which had their land and property seized during World War II and were sent off to interment camps simply because of their ethnicity.  Yes, it can happen in America and it already has under the administration of one of the greatest American Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt.  

The Cherokee Removal A Brief History With Documents edited by Theda Perdue & Michael Green  For those of you who have read "Stubborn Twig..." and still find yourselves saying it couldn't happen here, it already has...twice, once to the Japanese Americans and once to the Cherokee.  In many ways, the disrespect that Trump shows to Muslims and immigrants is a lot like the attitude which Andrew Jackson showed the Native Americans.  

The United States Of Appalachia How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture, and Enlightenment To America by Jeff Biggers  This book will teach you a great deal about the birth of American Democracy, especially for those of you who have never heard of the State Of Franklin.  Jeff Biggers will also show you a lot about how a few dedicated citizens can change a country for the better. 

A Nation Defiant Polish Resistance To The German Occupation Of Poland by Richard S. Fuegner  The only way the country will be able to successfully resist, confront, and stop the destruction of American Democracy by Traitor Trump and his henchmen will be by utilizing a committed, determined, and well organized populist resistance.  Such a resistance is forming in America and can win this battle in the long run but that resistance must learn techniques which have been successful in other periods and other places.  This is an excellent book about the Polish resistance and will teach you a lot.

When Even Angels Wept by Lately Thomas During 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin led an effort known as the Communist Witch Hunts which destroyed the lives and careers of many thousand falsely accused Americans.  Senator McCarthy, another classic megalomaniac, led a senate investigation into alleged communism in the country and dragged hundreds and thousands of innocent socially active people in front of the committee where they were pilloried, denigrated, and defamed with little to no evidence in most cases.  Many of these people spent the rest of their lives unemployed, defamed, and in poverty.  But Senator McCarthy was confronted and stopped before he could completely destroy the country and American Democracy.  This is a great book to learn about one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the country and to utilize that knowledge to prevent TRAITOR Trump and his henchmen from perpetrating another such crime.  

I hope every person who reads this post will go on to read at least one of the listed works, especially the United States Constitution, which will be under attack for the next four years by the Republican Party whether or not Donald Trump is successfully prosecuted for treason.  

 

A Tale Of Two Press Conferences And The Corona Virus!

Every day between 5pm and 7pm, two press conferences are televised in Kentucky.  One of those press conferences is also televised nationwide and that is a damn shame!  In Kentucky, at 5pm on every major television station in the state we see press conference by our Governor Andy Beshear.  It usually lasts for about an hour and is a shining example of what a press conference by an elected official working in a crisis should be.

Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky

Governor Beshear is professional, strong, well informed, honest, accurate, compassionate, and everything a people in crisis should expect and receive from a leader at one of the worst times in the history of the state and nation.  This press conference has been taking place on a daily basis for about two weeks since Kentucky developed its first cases of Corona Virus in Jefferson and Fayette counties, the two truly urban counties in the state.  At the time these press conferences began, we had two cases in the state as I recall.  Today, March 28, 2020, we have roughly 300 cases statewide in at least 45 of the 120 counties.  The virus is spreading rapidly and randomly across the state just as it is across the nation.  Citizens are hoarding food, avoiding social contact, living in irrational fear, and doing both many good things and an equal number of ignorant, misinformed, and irrational things.   But Andy Beshear and his team of staff walk into the capitol press room each day cool, calm, collected, prepared with facts and information which is needed by every citizen of the state.  He begins the conferences these days with an affirmation and actually asks the audience to repeat it with him: "We Will Get Through This!  We Will Get Through This Together!"  Andy Beshear is everything a leader should be.  He has assembled the best team of the most talented people that the state can offer.  They deliver facts in a calm, supportive, professional, ethical manner and every citizen of Kentucky is better because of it.  

At about the time Andy Beshear's press conference is ending, the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House based on his TREASON with Russia also begins a daily press conference which is everything the press conferences of Governor Beshear's are not.  This TRAITOR is ignorant, uninformed, divisive, abrasive, uneducated, unintelligent, dishonest, amoral, and without one iota of compassion as he has always been.  He spits, sputters, foments greater fears among the populace because of his thousands of flaws, lies, and deceptions.  He does anything he can to avoid taking the appropriate blame for having, on a daily basis, increased the danger to every citizen of this country.  He blames others.  He lies repeatedly.  He attacks the press, the governors of many states, and at times even the victims of the Corona Virus.  He is an idiot, a pathological liar, an international and a domestic terrorist, and the personification of evil in the world.  He refuses to heed the advice of communicable disease, national security, health care, and government experts.  He uses the one actual professional on his team, Dr. Anthony Fauci, as a shield and a scapegoat.  He is a waste of time to every American who watches him and further endangers the lives of every resident of the United States and the world.  His rants have progressed to the point that the three major television networks usually cut away from his "press conferences" at or near 6:30pm and go on the air with the national news just as they did in the days when the Corona Virus was unknown in the world.  The television networks and their reporters recognize this TRAITOR for exactly what he is and this is as close to nothing as a living, breathing human can sink.  America is in the worst health care disaster since the polio epidemic of the early twentieth century and we have no leader at the top.  Instead we are saddled with a TRAITOR who does not care one iota bout the country or its citizens.  What do you as a citizen in what used to be the greatest democracy in the world going to do about this?  

Keys To The Kentucky Election 2019

On Tuesday, November 5, 2019, the Kentucky General Election will take place with all statewide constitutional offices up for election including governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor, attorney general, and commissioner of agriculture.  In my opinion, this is the most important election in Kentucky in many years, perhaps even all time.  There has never been a more clear cut separation of the parties and candidates in Kentucky election history.  The future of the entire state government system and the long term well being of most of the citizens of the state hangs in the balance.  The next four years in Kentucky can be either among the best in state history or literally the four worst and most damaging years in the history of the state.  

For the past four years, Kentucky has been saddled with the most unpopular and most destructive governor in all fifty states, Repugnican Matt Bevin, who actually isn't even from Kentucky.  Over the last few years, the Repugnican party has also managed to gain majority control in both houses of the state legislature.  We have been attacked by the governor and his Right Wing Radical Repugnican supporters in a multitude of ways.  They have passed right to work legislation which  is always a lie and a direct attack on the working class anytime, anywhere it is proposed or passed.  They have passed radical and ignorant changes to Kentucky gun laws which now allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry that gun in concealment without any permit or oversight from any form of government.  They have attempted to destroy the pension systems for Kentucky teachers and other retirees.  The governor and his Right Wing Radical Repugnican co-conspirators have only been prevented from destroying the state by virtue of the fact that we have had a highly qualified, morally solid attorney general in Andy Beshear who is now the only qualified candidate for the governorship.  The Right Wing Radical Repugnican candidate for attorney general has never really practiced law and his only claim to fame is that he assisted the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House to appoint a sexual predator to the US Supreme Court.  If Matt Bevin is reelected and he has a Right Wing Radical Repugnican attorney general to assist him in his crime spree along with the morally corrupt state legislature, they will literally destroy public education, health care, social justice, and many other departments of Kentucky state government in the next four years.  They must be stopped!  Kentucky voters must vote straight Democratic in order to protect this state not just for the next four years but for all time.  The amount of damage that would be done by the group of Right Wing Repugnican Radicals over the next four years would do damage that might be irreversible for decades.  

The keys to the election will be voter turnout especially by teachers and public employees and retirees; solidarity among the aforementioned voting blocks; and, the level of political knowledge among those voting blocks.  Literally, this election lies in the hands of Kentucky teachers, public employees and retirees of all occupations, and liberal leaning voters.  In any election in recent memory in Kentucky, teachers and those they should have been able to influence to vote in a rational manner could have provided the most crucial blocks of votes and prevented the disastrous election of Matt Bevin and his Right Wing Radical co-conspirators in the legislature.  Teachers and those they could have been expected to be able to influence could have saved the state from the last four deeply damaging years and they can definitely save the state for the next four years by voting straight Democratic and putting Matt Bevin out of office.  Teachers and all other public employees must go to the polls en masse, must influence every relative to vote with them, and must vote in their own best interest and the best interest of the entire state.  Kentucky public education, public health, and social welfare programs have been under constant attack by Matt Bevin for four solid years.  He must be stopped and the only way to do that is to vote for Andy Beshear and the entire Democratic ticket on Tuesday, November 5, 2019. 

"Public Health In Appalachia Essays From The Clinic And The Field" Edited by Wendy Welch--Book Review

Welch, Wendy, Editor: Public Health In Appalachia Essays From The Clinic And The Field (Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland And Company, 2014)

This book is one work in a series of books from McFarland and Company in Jefferson, North Carolina, called the Contributions To Southern Appalachian Studies series which in the last twenty years has produced roughly forty books.  It is a book I should have read and written about promptly after it was published in 2014 since one article in the book quotes substantially from an article which I co-authored in 2005 with Dr. Heather Ambrose, Ph.D. on the topic of "Culturally Appropriate Counseling and Human Services in Appalachia: The Need and How to Address It" which was published online by the American Counseling Association and which we delivered in a presentation at the 2005 National Conference of the ACA.  However, that quotation and citation is not the best reason for me or anyone else to read this book.  The real reason you should read it is that it is a compilation of ten very cogent and informative essays written by more than a dozen human services and/or education professionals in the Central and Southern Appalachian region.  The subtitle, "Essays From The Clinic And The Field", explains very aptly why I consider this book to be a fine resource for human services and education professionals working in the region.  It is taken directly from the mouths of more a dozen of the "horses" who have been pulling the load in some very tough professions in the region and who clearly demonstrate their professional skills and cultural competence in their writing.  

In the opening paragraph of the Foreword, John Dreyzehner addresses one of my pet peeves for nearly all my life which I have always confronted in the header to this blog.  Mr. Dreyzehner has begun his introduction to the book by saying: 

"Many years ago a young college student from Chicago signed up for a brief Catholic mission experience deep in rural Appalachia.  One of the first things the ignorant young man noticed was that the locals and the host clergy didn't pronounce "Appalachia" right.  What they said sounded more like "apple-AT-cha".  Fortunately, he did not try to correct them, nor they, more kindly, he in saying "app-a-LAY-cha".  That was the beginning of an education in cultural sensitivity and cultural literacy.  There was a lot to learn." (Dreyzehner, Public Health In Appalachia Essays from the Clinic and the Field, p. 1)

I cannot think of a finer way for any non-native resident of Appalachia to begin a discussion of the region.  My own aforementioned header to this blog uses nearly identical words to address the same topic:

"An ever growing site of non-fiction,flotsam, fiction,memoir,autobiography,literature,history, ethnography, and book reviews about Appalachia, Appalachian Culture, and how to keep it alive!!! Also,how to pronounce the word: Ap-uh-latch-uh. Billy Ed Wheeler said that his mother always said,"Billy, if you don't quit, I'm going to throw this APPLE AT CHA" Those two ways are correct. All The Others Are Wrong." (Roger D. Hicks, see above)

This book makes a meritorious attempt in several of the articles to address that need for cultural competency and the same article which quotes my work, written by Bob Franko, also quotes and cites  the work of my friend and mentor Loyal Jones from his book "Appalachian Values" on which I have based much of my writings about the need for cultural competence in writing about or working in Central and Southern Appalachia.  It was quite refreshing to see anyone directly addressing the widespread and deliberate mispronunciation of the name of our homeland.  One of my very early blog posts,  and I am proud to say one of the most frequently read on this blog, directly addressed this issue.  I also frequently mention the excellent, early Appal Shop movie "Strangers and Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image", which is one of finest attempts ever made to address the negative attacks on Appalachia and Appalachians.  Those of us who have fought this battle for most of our lives can truly appreciate the effort by Franko and Dreyzehner.

But there are numerous other reasons to appreciate this book and the greater series from McFarland and Company.  Nearly every article in the book has direct applications for both professionals working in the region and native Appalachian who simply want to be understood by the greater America around us as an unappreciated and frequently maligned minority which are generally denied minority status.  The first section of the book contains four articles which address a quartet of the most serious problems facing the region today: cancer, diabetes, drug addiction, and inadequate dental care. The second section is comprised of three articles about culturally appropriate health care delivery systems.  All three of these articles are well written by individuals who understand exactly what they are talking about.  Steve North, M. D. wrote a very good article about telehealth in Appalachia.  But I must take offense with the general need for telehealth in Appalachia or anywhere else in a country which mistakenly claims to be the most advanced in the world.  I am still offended that in America we have reached a time where it is necessary for people in any part of the country to participate in telehealth in order to participate in the health care system.  I also take offense when I am seen at one of the best hospitals in the entire southeast and I am unable to see a person who is actually a medical doctor.  I have worked with and know several highly qualified nurse practitioners and physicians assistants but I will never believe that this country could not, if politicians and health care administrators would allow it, produce a health care system in which every patient would meet with a physician at the moment of initial contact.  Such a system would require us, as a nation, to actually create new systems of taxation, education, and healthcare delivery. Such a system would allow every qualified applicant to be accepted into a medical school without fear of losing their future freedom of choice because of paying off education loans.  Other countries with far less average gross domestic product pay for a college education for every qualified applicant.  We should also.  If those applicants choose to become nurse practitioners or physicians assistants instead of becoming doctors, we should support them just the same.  A free public college education for every qualified applicant in America would vastly increase our gross domestic product, average income, and general effectiveness as a nation.  But for the time being, I do admit that the current system of using medical practitioners who are less qualified than full medical doctors does give us the ability to delivery minimally effective health care to the greatest number of patients especially in remote areas of Appalachia, the Deep South, and the far west.  But it should never be accepted as the best or most widely used system. 

The third section of the book contains three articles on cultural theory and clinical policy.  One of those articles written by Tauna Gulley, RN, on fatalism and its effects on Appalachian youth.  Fatalism is one of the old topics which has been repeatedly used as a club with which to beat Appalachia and Appalachians.  In my opinion, this article could have been left on the cutting room floor and the overall book would have been better.  Fatalism is an easy place to fall back on if an author is attempting to continue the denigration, defamation, and defeat of Appalachia.  It is not nearly as prevalent or important as some people believe. At the time of publication of this book, Ms Gulley was a professor of nursing at the University of Virginia College at Wise.  Today, she is the coordinator of a nursing program at the University of Pikeville and apparently now holds a doctoral degree.  I do not know her or her educational or personal background.  But it has generally been my experience that the topics of fatalism, familism, and internecine squabbles, when used in reference to Appalachia are most generally used by non-natives of the region as a way to justify  what they mistakenly believe to be our shortcomings as a people and a region. 

Do not allow the couple of negative assessments I have made of individual articles to overly color your opinions of this book.  The strengths of the work strongly overcome any weaknesses a couple of articles may exhibit.  Read the book and benefit from it.  Read it with a critical eye and use the parts of it you are willing to accept at face value.  Use the parts with which you disagree to broaden your own knowledge base about how to overcome or counterbalance the alleged weaknesses those authors may discuss.  And realize that the opinions of any particular author may well not represent those of the editor or the other authors.  This is a book from which to learn. It is a tool.  Use it wisely! 

Health Care Rally Coal Run Village KY July 29, 2017

The War Goes On--We Only Won The Last Battle

On Saturday, July 29, 2017, my wife Candice, my cousin Jack Terry, and I attended a Rally For Health Care at Coal Run City Park in Coal Run Village in Pike County Kentucky.  I have to apologize for not having written about this rally at least two weeks ago so my readers would have been better informed and had a chance to attend the rally.  The bottom line is that the recent win in the US Senate to avoid the destruction of American Health Care was only one battle in what will continue to be a long war unless TRAITOR Trump is indicted, convicted, impeached, and imprisoned for all his crimes, past, present, and future.  This rally was not a celebration of a victory.  It was much more a call to arms for the ongoing war to protect health care for the majority of Americans.  

The rally was sponsored by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and several other organizations.  If I unintentionally fail to list any of them I apologize in advance. Other organizations which sponsored the rally included the Breathitt County Democratic Women's Club, the United Steel Workers Of America, and several others. Speakers included Dr. Van Breeding a recent winner of Country Doctor of The Year.  Dr. Breeding practises in Whitesburg, KY, and spoke quite positively about the changes which Obama Care has brought to health care in Kentucky and Letcher County.  The rally was also held on the anniversary of the beginning of Medicare and Medicaid.  

The thing that all voters in America, Appalachia, and Kentucky should remember is that the battle against Obama Care will not stop because we won in the Senate more than one time.  The same Right Wing Radical Repugnicans, drug companies, insurance companies, doctors, lawyers, and others who are inciting the TRAITOR Trump group to destroy American Health Care will keep inciting, spending billions in lobbying money, and working to leave Americans in same lurch for health care we had been before President Obama instituted his health care plan.  800,000 Kentuckians, and about 15 to 30 million Americans will lose health care if this plan is allowed to be destroyed.  More than 10,000 of the highest paying and most stable jobs in Kentucky's 5th congressional district will disappear if this plan is destroyed.  Equal numbers of citizens will lose health care and equal numbers of jobs will disappear in other congressional districts all over Central and Southern Appalachia.  West Virginia's 3rd congressional district will have similar losses and their congressman, Evan Jenkins, is doing nothing to protect his district.  The 9th District in Virginia will also have losses nearly as high as those in West Virginia and Kentucky.  The 1st Congressional District in Tennessee will also lose high numbers of jobs and large numbers of the poorest citizens in that state will lose health care if we sit on our butts and allow TRAITOR Trump and his Russian Owned Criminal Conspiracy to destroy the best legislation to pass congress since the Social Security Act.  And, you can bet your butt that if they are allowed to destroy Obama Care they will come after Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, and other human services acts as soon as they can.  

Every citizen in America should be up in arms trying to protect Obama Care and fighting to end the attempts to destroy this program.  The United States is the only so-called civilized country in the world without universal health care.  Several Third World countries like Ecuador and Cuba have universal health care because they care for the needs of their citizens instead of their corporations and their rich.  You, as a citizen of both Appalachia and the United States, need to stand up, speak up, and speak out to protect health care in America.  Help bring America up to par with the other true democracies in the world which provide health care to their citizens.

Ode To The Outdoor Toilet

Outdoor Toilet Photo By Bucharest Life

A recent exchange between my cousin, Jack D. Terry, and I led me to do some rumination about outdoor toilets in general and about one in particular.  Jack, myself, my half-sister Barbara, and three of Jack's siblings all spent several years of our lives living in a combination house and store on Steele's Creek near Wayland, KY, in Floyd County where over several years our fathers both operated a country store.  My father, Ballard Hicks, bought the property sometime in the early 1940's after his first wife, Ora Wicker Hicks, became ill with an undetermined and fatal illness.  Daddy bought the store and left the coal mines at Wayland in order to be able to care for his seriously ill wife.  He operated a store there for about fifteen years until he built a new combination store and house at Dema, KY further up Beaver Creek in Knott County.  I was born at Lackey Hospital while my parents, Ballard Hicks, and his second wife, my mother, Mellie Hicks, were living in the building on Steele's Creek.  We continued to live there until I was about six years old and moved to Knott County in the summer of 1957 just as I was due to enter school at Salisbury Elementary. My half-sister, Barbara, lived there from the time our mother married my father which was nearly the entire time he operated the store on Steele's Creek.  On the same day we moved up Beaver Creek from Steele's Creek, Jack's parents, Corbett and Ellen Hicks Terry, and their children moved into the house and store on Steele's Creek.  They also operated a store there for several years and partially raised five children in the building.  

Outdoor Toilet Photo By Scary For Kids

The property on Steele's Creek was a markedly small lot jammed between the highway and a cliff at the back of the house.  When Jack, his brother Johnny, and I were old enough to run around at night, we could actually slip up the cliff, step over onto the roof of the lean-to kitchen and climb in their upstairs bedroom window in order to avoid waking their parents whose bedroom included the entrance to the stairs.  The lot was nearly as narrow as it was shallow.  A hand dug well not more than thirty feet deep provided water for us all the entire time we lived in the house.  It did go dry in drought years. The well had been dug just off the edge of the porch which could be accessed from the family living quarters by either the living room or the kitchen.  To draw water, you just stepped out the kitchen door, stood on the porch, and drew water straight from the well without leaving the dry porch and its roof.  On the opposite side of the building, accessed directly off the store's feed room via a door cut in the exterior wall of the building was the one hole outdoor toilet. The feed room in a country store was used to store items like livestock feed, tools, fertilizer, and other items too large to place on display shelves. There was no exterior door to the toilet and you literally stepped out of the feed room into the toilet which was no more than fifty feet maximum from the well and probably about ten feet deep.  By today's health standards, that setup would be considered a health disaster just waiting to happen.  Yet four adults and seven children in our extended family spent years living in that house and none of us ever had a serious sick day in our lives.  The building is long gone and I have no photographs of it to add to this blog post.  I surely wish I did.  Corbett, Ellen, and their five children spent several years in the building until Corbett received his Social Security and Black Lung and bought a small farm and house further up Steele's Creek near the mouth of Hammer Tight Hollow.  I have marveled many times that none of us ever got sick in that situation.  I have no idea how many other people lived in that building before my father bought it. After Corbett and Ellen moved out, it was abandoned until it fell down from neglect.

Outdoor Toilet Photo By Video Blocks

When we moved to Knott County and Corbett and Ellen's family moved to Hammer Tight we all finally got indoor plumbing.  But I entered grade school at Salisbury Elementary that same summer we moved and my school had two outdoor toilets and a drilled well in a set up very similar to the one we had on Steele's Creek.  Each of the toilets was a two hole situation, located about thirty or forty feet apart near the upstream left rear corner of the school. One was for boys and the other for girls. The drilled well, which had a hand pump was located about ten feet from the right side of the school on the down stream side of the building.  This was also a situation, by today's health standards, that was a disaster in the making.  But there were apparently no state or federal regulations which required indoor plumbing, running water, actual bath rooms, or any significant distance between school toilets and wells.  Once again, hundreds of children attended Salisbury Elementary for probably forty or fifty years and no one ever exhibited any kind of serious illness which could blamed on the toilets and the well.  In today's world, either of those situations in the store or the school would be illegal and stopped the first time a passing health inspector became aware of them.  

In the 1950's and 1960's when I was growing up, most of my neighbors had outdoor toilets in Knott County.  I am certain that in most of the entire region of Central and Southern Appalachia in those days that the majority of citizens were using outdoor toilets.  I can remember seeing many toilets built on the sides of hills near houses, yards, and gardens with the structure hanging over the edge of a hill without even a toilet hole or pit dug beneath them.  Raw human waste would just drop, drip, and slide down the hill into the weeds and woods. There were also other such toilets which were literally built hanging over a creek bank with human waste falling directly into the running stream which usually had people fishing no more than a few miles down stream.  Fancier set situations, in some cases, had two hole toilets, deep pits beneath them, clearly downstream from all homes, gardens, yards, and play areas and relatively far away from creeks.  But they were rare in that time and health problems seemed rare to intermittent at most.  I don't recall ever knowing anyone who became seriously ill due to a disease which was known to be caused by human waste contamination.  

We have actually progressed in Kentucky today to the point that we have a state law which prevents public utilities from connecting electricity service to homes which do not have a state inspected and approved sewage system already constructed.  But in some remote areas, I still know of a few cases where a serious loop hole in that law is sometimes exploited.  You can have electricity hooked to a barn, garage, or outbuilding which is not being used or intended for human habitation.  People who don't intend or can't afford to build an approved sewage system sometimes build an outbuilding very close to the site where they intend to build a house or set a trailer.  They have electricity hooked to that building via a power pole with an attached meter base and fuse box which is large enough to operate a home.  Then when the power company turns their back the home is built or a trailer installed within a few feet of the pole and fuse box and the power is wired to that structure without informing the power company. Then the customary sewage situation is usually a straight pipe into a creek. I do not say this to imply that I believe it is either correct or acceptable.  I am simply commenting on a common practice.  I know quite well we are all better off with and should all have complete sewage systems, indoor bathrooms, running water, and the best of sanitation.  But I am also saying that outdoor toilets did not kill us all and many people have fond memories of the "little brown shack out back", "four rooms and a path".  I even remember my father telling me of how, when he was a child in the late 1800's that he and his family kept a one by twelve inch board about two feet long leaned up against the wall near a hearth and they carried it to the toilet in cold weather to put their feet on it while they did their business.  We often hear toilets mentioned in southern and Appalachian literature, country songs, and stories told by old men near coal stoves in country stores.

The outdoor toilet played a major role in the lives of millions of poor people all over the country and more still exist than you might believe.  Many of them may now be used only as tool sheds, storage buildings, or dog houses.  But as you drive the hills and hollows of all the states of Central and Southern Appalachia keep an eye out and you will see them still sitting somewhere near the edge of more properties than you might have believed.