Kentucky River
Vol.
VI,N o. 6
____________
j uiy 1980
APPALACHIAN INDEPENDENCE DA Y Independence from poverty, want, and the nagging worry over having enough of the bare necessities for sustenance of wife and children. “Independence ” from ignorance and semiliteracy, and the nervousness that goes with that in applying for a job or filling out any w ritten form. “Independence” for children from the feeling of being “ locked-in” to a system with no opportunity, only drudgery, poverty, and worry about physical survival. “Independence” from debts unwittingly incurred, bills for services assumed to be ‘‘rig h ts,” and credit-freelygiven that becomes slavery-of-indebtedness. Independence” for youth from feeling that their life is irretrievably lost due to early error in juvenile crime. “Independence” from the belief that the world is made up of the exploiters and the exploited, “ they” and “ w e” , and that it m ust always be so. “Independence” for the handicapped from the feeling of uselessness, unproductiveness, and loss of self-respect and dignity. “Independence” for the family from the feeling that separation or divorce, with all its traum a and heartbreak, is the only alternative to a little domestic conflict. “Independence” from the insult to one’s pride of being dependent on welfare, food stamps, or handouts.