The New York Times Loves Eastern Kentucky

So this blog post may be a little bit of a cop out, because I'm really just going to talk about articles written by other people.  But maybe one of these days I'll fulfill my aspirations of writing more regularly.

The first article I want to point out is this opinion article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html?pagewanted=all

The county he talks about is Breathitt County, which borders me (here in Perry County) to the North.  And, Breathitt Co. is one of the 4 counties we work in at the HDA.  As I have talked with clients over the course of my (almost) 5 months here, many of them draw benefits.  Most of the elderly population draws Social Security, some adults draw disability and some families receive their children's supplemental security income.  For some of these families, government benefits are their only source of income.  However, with the economy and job market here, we sometimes joke at the office that our clients receiving benefits have the most stable form of income.   The lingo surrounding benefits I've learning since being here is also interesting.  At the beginning of 2013, most people on benefits got what's called a "cost of living increase."  People getting $698 a month started receiving $710 instead.  But instead of calling it a cost of living increase, here it's called "getting a raise."

I've seen benefits frequently discussed on social media, and people seem to feel very strongly about them one way or another.  This blog post is not me taking a stand or anything like that.  In fact, I'm still figuring out how I feel about the issue.  I'm just writing about what I've observed.  But I can say that I wish people would think a little bit about the people they judge from afar before voicing their opinions on social media.

This article from The Daily Yonder offers a contradicting view to the NYT's one:
... actually I can't find that article at the moment.  But this is one of the responses written:

http://www.dailyyonder.com/weekend-roundup-kristof-complaints/2013/01/27/5609

This post is TO BE CONTINUED.  With the other article from The Daily Yonder

AND (a teaser...)

And on a totally different note, a town in Perry County was recently made famous by being the smallest town in Kentucky... and maybe even the USA to pass a Fairness Ordinance.  This means they are banning discrimination against anyone based on sexual orientation or gender identity... (to be continued)