Connie's Corner

Hope

I finished J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy today, and it has left me with a lot more questions than answers. If you haven't read it, it's about the problems faced and facing poor people in Appalachia and areas to which they may have migrated for work. The book goes to the heart of the matter, hopelessness. How do you restore hope?

My Jim was from West Virginia, from a poor family, but there were no drugs or alcohol involved as in Vance's family, but like Vance, he "joined up" right out of high school because there was no hope if he stayed. No hope of finding a good job, no hope of advancing one's station in life, no hope of fulfilling the American dream.

Inadvertently, according to an interview Vance gave, his book spoke to the reason for Trump's presidency. When you're desperate, you do desperate things. You clutch at hope.

until next time...c