Where Is Appalachia

When the exact location of Appalachia is considered, there are many different opinions. Some would say that Appalachia is an attitude rather than a geographic location, while others argue that Appalachia is a location, running the same path as the Appalachian Mountains.

Others even argue that things such as coal, music, or the attitudes of rebellion and freedom define the location of Appalachia.According to this video and the Appalachian Regional Commission, (http://www. youtube. com/watch? =j3b8LnloTtw) Appalachia is “a 205,000 square mile region that follows the Appalachian Mountains for more than 1,000 miles. ” It includes all of West Virginia and parts of 12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The ARC says that Appalachia encompasses 420 counties.

However, counties have been added since the origin of the commission, and continue to be added, leading people to wonder if anyone actually has a set definition!When questioned about the boundaries, the commissioner of the ARC said, “I had to draw the lines somewhere. ” While some define the region geographically, there is also the argument that Appalachia is a way of life, while outsiders who are ignorant to the subject may define it simply as the land of the hicks. I recently watched a documentary on Netflix, called “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” and to much of the world, things such as this documentary define the location of Appalachia.It displayed a family (the Whites) located in Boone County, West Virginia, who are known very well by the law. They use drugs, kill people, and make moonshine.

Combining for a total of probably 20 teeth, and an IQ score of 12, films like this only fuel the fire of stereotyping in Appalachia. Many people however, forget to recognize Poney White, who, in the documentary escaped Boone County. He now lives in Minnesota, and is Jesco’s only surviving brother. He clawed his way up into the middle class. Many people don’t realize that this can happen, but it is also rare.

Living in Appalachia myself, I see this all around me. If daddy uses drugs, the son will too. If mommy was a prostitute, the daughter will be too. Sadly, this is usually how it works.

However I do also know many college students who’s fathers were deadbeat addicts and and out of jail all the time. I feel like that side of the region is rarely seen in media. I found Loren’s comment at (http://movies. nytimes.

com/2010/05/05/movies/05wild. html) to be very interesting. Loren said that people could never escape this vicious cycle through the generations without education.I agree with her statement for the most part. Education, as we all know, is directly related to income.

Without this increased income, these people can never seem to escape the nasty habit of being forced to break the law just to get by. Unfortunately, stupidity sells, and this poor Appalachian family is exposed through national media. Along with the stereotypes, geography, and values, Appalachia, to an extent, is also defined by settlement. In Appalachia, 42% of the population is declared as rural, as compared to the 20% notional average.In my opinion, the region is defined as a way of life. Appalachian culture is based on Christianity, family values, and freedom still today, just as it was during the settlement of the region.

Advancing through the Appalachian Mountains was so difficult during colonial times, not only because of geographic barriers, but also because of politics. The Proclamation of 1763 issued by Britain demanded no contact of their colonies with the Native American indigenous people, who were located West of the Appalachian Mountain range (http://www. ushistory. org/declaration/related/proc63. tm).The punishments were great for breaking this rule, along with the associated dangers.

The few settlers who were willing to risk by crossing the Appalachian range then settled the region today known as Appalachia. These settlers were the most adventurous, risking, and freedom hungry of the colonial people, but because there were so few of them, and such a vast area for settling, they could spread out and acquire the land they each wanted. This is the reason for how rural the region is still today, but it might also describe much more than that.It might also be the reason for the values of hard working and fighting for freedom that are so prominent in today’s Appalachia. Another thing that is described by this movement is religion. The Scotch-Irish people who settled the Appalachian region were protestant dissenters from an Irish province known as Ulster for the most part (http://en.

wikipedia. org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American). These values, and religion were passed down, and can still be seen today. To me, this defines Appalachia.

It is closely associated with the Bible belt, and for good reason.It is a region with strong respect for family, hard work, and God. It cannot be located on a map specifically, but, agreeing with the ARC, the region does appear to follow the Appalachian Mountains. Statistics of Appalachia (http://www. arc.

gov/assets/research_reports/StandardsofLivinginAppalachia1960to2000. pdf) has some of the finest statistics on the standard of living in Appalachia. As you can see on the chart on page two of their report, the rates of poverty were significantly higher in Appalachia as opposed to the rest of America, and that was prior to the recession in America.From 2000 to 2008, Appalachia lost more than 59,000 jobs in farming, forestry, and natural resources, and 473,000 manufacturing jobs, according to (http://www. arc.

gov/images/appregion/Jan2011/EconomicOverview-1-28-11. pdf). The statistics there also state that only 17 of the 420 Appalachian counties showed employment growth from 2008 to 2010, and those growths were insignificant. Their statistics also show that the rates of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, which were much higher than those of the rest of America. This is a result of the lack of medical and affordable medical care in the region.Also unfortunate, the proportion of adults with a college degree was 17.

6% in Appalachia, as compared to 24. 4% for the rest of the nation. It is also likely that the gap is widening in this statistic as well due to the low income rates in Appalachia, and the high costs of secondary education. The region also receives 33% less Federal expenditures than the national average.

This includes education! If Appalachia cannot advance in technology and development without education, then shouldn’t we be receiving more government money to fuel such a revolution?Among all of these statistics, the one that stands out most to me, is the strong decline in the population of Appalachia. This is a major concern in Appalachia at the moment, but being a young person, I completely understand this statistic. Although nobody in the region’s politics claims to know why the population is decreasing, it is simple. People follow opportunity.

If a person can leave Appalachia, get an education, make more money, and be more successful, all the while, being surrounded by activism, which is what they want, how can anyone blame them? Appalachia is still seen as a pre-modern society.