quote:
This is why I rage at Missionary trips to Mexico, Africa, Central America and have zero faith in the churches that I grew up in and have family and friends that pastor them.

frick raising money for Africa when there's people living in shacks with no running water, hollowed out school buses, and barely standing trailers just down the road. Our own people are shut out of proper healthcare and dental care, access to the internet, access to education, high tech training or even advanced skills training, and then to even be able to get an entry level job at 1 of the 3 Fortune 500 companies in NW Arkansas, they have to drive an hour to hour and a half each way.

There are some real core problems in Rural America, and the price of land, equipment, fuel, labor, and transportation locks them out of even attempting to use the one resource they have available to them living off the land.

I hear ya. I think a lot of the problem lies in the fact that Americans who've never set foot in these areas have no idea just how bad it is. A lot of people think they know what poor is -- they judge by what they've seen in their towns. But Appalachia is indeed as bad as some of the worst Indian Reservations, parts of the Delta, and inner city ghettos. But just like other places that suffer poverty at this level -- out of sight out of mind seems to rule.

A lot of people would have their image of America shattered if they saw just how bad things are. Most have no clue.

As to leaving... as with ghettos, Indian Reservations and other spots many are simply too poor to leave and even if they did leave they wouldn't walk into a land of opportunity. No one's going to hire someone who can't read and being away from family makes life even more expensive.

It's a sorry situation that we've abandoned our own citizens and that most have no clue about what living conditions are really like.