Wednesday, June 04, 2008
I've written about the "inbreeding" taboo before, but thought I'd go over it--one more time--since Dick Cheney slandered our West Virginia cousins this past Monday at the National Press Club.
So we had Cheneys on both sides of the family—and we don't even live in West Virginia. You can say those things when you're not running for re-election.
Or so says Mr. Cheney...
When I first moved here, I was told Cocke county--Grassy Fork in particular-- was the community other Appalachian communities badmouthed. Said all that stuff about inbreeding was true here. That those folks kept hidden kinfolk with strange things wrong with them locked up or tied to trees in the back yard. And these sorts of things I heard from native Cocke countians and residents of neighboring counties.
"Be careful--they'll steal your car. That's the chop shop capitol of the country."
And it's true people are closely related to each other here. There are many first cousin marriages. There's all the bad things like incest, ignorance, cruelty, child abuse and illiteracy.
But here's the kicker--not more so than anywhere else in the country or the world. The sad thing is when Appalachian people don this mantle of shame and take it as their own. It is the other people who promote all of this who are ignorant. I wish there was some way to empower Hill Folk so they didn't feel the need to carry this around with them. It's past time to stop being the scapegoats of the rest of the world.
You want to point a finger at line breeding gone wrong in human populations--I give you--The British Royal Family. Haemophilia and big ears. There were some odd looking folks until Princess Di came along.
At any rate, there is an excellent article in yesterdays Slate on this issue.
West Virginia, Incest Virginia? How the Mountain State got a reputation for inbreeding.
When I first moved here, I was told Cocke county--Grassy Fork in particular-- was the community other Appalachian communities badmouthed. Said all that stuff about inbreeding was true here. That those folks kept hidden kinfolk with strange things wrong with them locked up or tied to trees in the back yard. And these sorts of things I heard from native Cocke countians and residents of neighboring counties.
"Be careful--they'll steal your car. That's the chop shop capitol of the country."
And it's true people are closely related to each other here. There are many first cousin marriages. There's all the bad things like incest, ignorance, cruelty, child abuse and illiteracy.
But here's the kicker--not more so than anywhere else in the country or the world. The sad thing is when Appalachian people don this mantle of shame and take it as their own. It is the other people who promote all of this who are ignorant. I wish there was some way to empower Hill Folk so they didn't feel the need to carry this around with them. It's past time to stop being the scapegoats of the rest of the world.
You want to point a finger at line breeding gone wrong in human populations--I give you--The British Royal Family. Haemophilia and big ears. There were some odd looking folks until Princess Di came along.
At any rate, there is an excellent article in yesterdays Slate on this issue.
West Virginia, Incest Virginia? How the Mountain State got a reputation for inbreeding.
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I hope thsat you had a great day today,That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Hope you're feeling better.
These politicians burn me up. I'm glad that 'Dick' will be out of office soon. I think he is doing a great job of living up to his name. (His mama must have known he would act like one so she went ahead and named him Dick in order to stay ahead of the public.)
I think he should go quail hunting again, only this time HE should be the lawyer.
Have a good week. :)
Hope you are feeling better!
Our current VP and Pres are a matched pair - When either of them opens their mouth Bullsh*t comes out.