Thread: Inside a Hidden America

I really don't see how American can be expected to take care of the world, when they don't take care of their own. Many of our resources are being wasted on foreign nationals, instead of Americans.

Inside a Hidden America

Isolated pockets in Central Appalachia have three times the national poverty rate, an epidemic of prescription drug abuse and the shortest life span in the nation. Toothlessness, cancer and chronic depression are rampant. For nearly two years, ABC News cameras followed four Appalachian children and their families and neighbors, each facing unimaginable obstacles.

ABC News' Diane Sawyer poses with 12-year-old Courtney, second from right, and three generations of mountain women. Courtney's grandmother, Dinah, far left, holds her sister Sable, 2. Also pictured are Courtney's mother, Angel, far right, and sisters Hannah, 7, and Mary, 11. In total, 11 people live under one roof.

Watch "A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains" tonight at 10 p.m. ET (ABC News)

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/popup?id=6856642

We have poverty that would embarass Mexico's, but no one shows their pictures, no one advocates their needs, no one campaigns on their behalf, because too few care about our own.

It's so sad. It's nice to ABC News take an interest and tell this story.

We would rather provide benefits to illegals than take care of our own American citizens. This is shameful.

Originally Posted by Judy

We have poverty that would embarass Mexico's, but no one shows their pictures, no one advocates their needs, no one campaigns on their behalf, because too few care about our own.

It's so sad. It's nice to ABC News take an interest and tell this story.

This is one of many that need to be told. I recently found out the average annual income of native americans in South Dakota is $2,600. I wound the DVD back twice and listened to make sure I had heard it right.

Certain people in all developed countries just do not seem to be able to get a break. When there is so much wealth in existence and some people still live on the brink of disaster it never fails to amaze me.

Yep ... I agree, lindiloo. I grew up in a county in the midwest that had the lowest evaluations of our 115 counties. I saw poverty I'll never forget, yet the people didn't think they were poor or act it. Social workers from the welfare office would have to hunt them down and explain to them they could sign up for some benefits and usually had to talk them into it. There's 2 types of poverty in our country, real poverty like in my home county and manufactured poverty like we see other places. And there's a big difference between the 2. We need to put a stop to this manufactured poverty so we can use our resources to help the really poor find a better way to live and sustain themselves with better results.

But, it all starts with jobs, and since we losing those faster than we can count them, the prospects for achieving that are slimmer by the day and will be until we reverse the policies that caused these hardships to begin with.