We have the GOP VP nominee and running mate for Trump….and during his acceptance speech we heard all about his life as a poor boy from Ohio or was it Kentucky…..but was it a story told to fools or was he all that?
It is a Friday and what better time for an FYI feature I found an article by someone from the region and his story and what he thinks of the tale spun by Vance.
I was raised in Coal City, West Virginia and when Monday’s big news about Trump’s vice presidential selection was announced, I felt instant rage. I wrote to my friends:
“J.D. Vance was named Trump’s running mate, which means people are talking about his stupid fucking book again, in which a venture capitalist from suburban Ohio who spent a couple of summers in Kentucky praises himself for pulling himself up by his bootstraps and blames the continued poverty of his ‘fellow’ hillbillies on their poor choices.
“Instead, read literally anything else. Read Appalachian Reckoning which responds to J.D. Vance’s stupid fucking book. Read Demon Copperhead. Read Another Appalachia. Dump a can of alphabet soup onto the floor and read whatever comes out of that. I guarantee it will be better than J.D. Vance’s stupid fucking book.”
Vance fills me with rage, in part, because I’m a lot like him.
When viewed from a distance, the arc of my life looks remarkably similar to his. Unlike Vance, my story actually starts in Appalachia. I was born in 1997, one town over from Coal City which doesn’t have luxuries like hospitals. My parents were white but that was basically their only advantage. My father is chronically ill and disabled. After getting a hysterectomy, and on the advice of her doctors, my mother started taking OxyContin. This prescription turned into an addiction that would carry her to an early grave.
Like Vance, I was raised primarily by my hillbilly grandparents, especially my mamaw. Papaw had died years earlier from stomach cancer that was left untreated when he refused to go to the doctor because he couldn’t afford to miss a shift in the mines. Papaw left mamaw with a meager pension and a roof over her head.
Maybe he is not the ideal person that he wants the world to believe…..all politicians fudge their life story a bit no matter the party.
But you decide whether this is the guy you want to be a secondary voice of your desires.
This is the end of my reporting week and now it is time for all of us to go out and enjoy the weekend wherever you live.
Turn The Page!
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
They must know that the truth about those background lies will come out. But they just don’t care because their cult followers are not listening or reading.
Best wishes, Pete.
Plus they just cannot help themselves….once they get away with it the easier it becomes. chuq