This week I finished the memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance, a book about growing up the descendant of Appalachian grandparents who relocated to southern Ohio only to find poverty and dysfunction followed them. Living in the Midwest, I live around many people like J.D.'s family. Drugs, poverty, child neglect, lack of higher education, lack of well paying job opportunities and hopelessness are all issues my own city and county deal with regularly. I was glad to be able to view these problems from an insider's perspective. It gave me more empathy toward my neighbors and their children. Like Mr. Vance, I don't see simple answers for these problems, but that doesn't mean we can't work to find some solutions. I encourage you to read "Hillbilly Elegy" to try to understand the problems lower to middle-class midwest citizens face in our country.
Here are two quotes from the book that I highlighted,
"As a teacher at my old high school told me recently, 'They want us to be shepherds to these kids. But no one wants to talk about the fact that many of them are raised by wolves.'" -page 138
"I don't believe in transformative moments, as transformation is harder than a moment." -page 189
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