I'm from Harlan Co. Ky


Harlan is a bad place. All the jobs are gone cause the coal mines shut down, and it is being destroied by drugs and crime.
Anyone else from Harlan?

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Hey There. Yes, I am from Harlan County Kentucky as well. Not all the jobs are gone....yes, the coal mining jobs are gone, but there are other things you can do. Granted, due to lack of many job opportunities, I believe its best to get out while you can. Which is why I am going to college and leaving.

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Hey Im from Harlan as well and you are both correct. Also hello fraggle rocker. This is reagen 89 on your msn...

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show a little appreciation for the sacrifices of the people who helped build our nation, im from a small pennsylvania mining town, they dont deep mine anymore, just strip

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l

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You may not recognize that "hillbillies" is hate speech, moderator. But it is. Please act.

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I thought a "hillbilly" was a farmer from Michigan?

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Awesome. How's tricks in Kensucky?

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To Asromafan: Harlan is not a dump you should be a shame of youre self. My Daddy was a coal miner in retired from the coal mine he rasied 15 children.My Daddy mother Brother was a chief of Police in Harlan County, in he was killed there in Harlan,ky I, do not know even where you live in that none of my business but what is my business is that i am a Hill Billy in i'm pround of it.one thing about country people that they not to sorry to work in then another thing they have learn to pray in trust Jesus Christ son of God.Pineville,is now a dump,neither is middlesboro a dump,where are you from.I;m country i love it.rely back if you want to [email protected]

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Both of my parents were born and raised in Harlan County, KY and both of their fathers worked in the mines. In fact, my maternal grandfather died in a mining accident in 1961, before I was born and while my grandmother was pregnant with their youngest child. After my parents married, they followed my dad's sister and her husband to northwestern Indiana, where both my dad and uncle got jobs at a Pepsi bottling plant. My dad worked for Pepsi for about 15 years, and then had a yearning to go back to Harlan. My mom fought it, but submitted to his wishes, crying for weeks after they (along with my sister and I) moved back to Harlan County. We only spent about a year and a half there, and ended up moving back to Indiana. Harlan County is a very poor area, but very rich in heritage, pride, and family values. I am very proud of my Harlan County heritage.

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Harlan is no dump. There are places in the county that are pretty bad. But I've been to places in huge cities that are dumps. asroman where exactly do you hail from so we make outrageous claims and degrade your home. Oh wait us Hillbillies have better manners than that. More than I can say for you or where you were raised.

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Eastern Kentucky is the best place to grow up and live. I have been all over, lived in Southern California and I rather be in the hills. Be proud of where your from, dont trash the place. People love eastern Kentucky once you get out. And I dont mean Lexington or up north. Go west people respect more! The new criterion release of this film is awesome!

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Are all the women fat and ugly like in the movie?

'Dim X as Integer = 0'

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Nope, only the ones that would be interested in you.

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I'm from Harlan to. Evarts to be exact.

It's so sad that all the oxy has destroyed the places that I grew up :(.

I'd give everything I've got to go back and walk the creek like it was in the summer of 89-90. No drugs, the worst thing you saw was the occasional drunk.

On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

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I have lived in Harlan and Letcher Counties all my life. Given the area does have a drug problem but not everyone is a druggie. There is some of the nicest people you have ever met in your life that live around here. The coal mines might be almost gone but there are jobs if you want one all you have to do is look for them. Might not be what you want but hey at least it is a job. And as being a hillybilly well I would rather be one of those anyday. Just makes me appreciate where I came from even more because at least I aint denying or covering up like some people I know try to do with there fancy accents and stuff. So that is my opinion. If you dont like it oh well. Thanks.

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I Just watched this film on DVD. I thought that it was very well done. It takes
a great deal of courage to make a film like this. It is a film that I am sure
Michael Moore respects very much. My question to this message board is "Dose
anybody know what happened to any of the people in the film?

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SOme of them are still alive today and living in Harlan. I'll see what all I can find out and get back to you...

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Yeah and I have both lived in Lee and Wise County and traveled in Dickenson and Scott and many other southwestern Va counties, and oh you sure don't find any "get er done" hillbillies there. Nothing but cosmopolitan lifestyle.

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Blah blah blah. You are probably from St Charles living on SSI trying to score your next OC.

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Just because Hollywood represents Eastern Kentuckians as bumbling oafs doesn't mean we are. It is called fictional representation for entertainment purposes. Most of us, and I say us because I grew up in the hills of Bell Co., are educated.

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Im a 21 year old coal miner who lives in Pikeville, KY. I have an associates degree in Computer Science/Information Technology from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. I knew I wanted to live in Appalachia. I got the degree as a backup plan in case I became injured in the mines. After attending college I moved back to Pikeville. Eastern KY is full of rich heritage and culture. Granted we have poverty sticken areas plagued with undereducated wellfare parasites. Though overall I love this area of the country.

As far as the documentary. I beleive it is excellent. Even though many of the people in the film were obviously not well educated, they were hard working honest people. Imagine having to work that hard in those conditions making little pay and living in company housing lacking running water or plumbing.

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It is hard to believe Harlan County is in the Western Hemisphere... it is even harder to believe that such a place existed in 1970's America. It is strange to comprehend that these people did not have sufficient plumbing. As an American I take a flushing toilet for granted.

The homes they were living in looked liked "Townships" in aparteid-era South Africa. Maybe this is a statement of the social injustice going on in Harlan County.

I heard on NPR radio that Most of America's electricity is generated by burning coal. And that coal burning power plants have not been upgraded in decades; which means electric companies (like Duke Power) have been earning solid profits for decades. To obtain good public relations the Duke family starts a college? If they really wanted to promote better education they would have created better educational opportunities for the coal workers. But then who would work in the mines if they had more opportunities.


I would be ashamed to admit I graduated from Duke University... well also I would be ashamed to admit I was a Rhodes Scholar. Since Cecil Rhodes made his fortune exploiting diamond miners in South Africa.

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Tis true that Duke made a fortune from the coal fields

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Fivestarmichael, beautifully said. I concur with you. I was born in Harlan, lived there for only a short while before my family moved away but both of my parents were Harlan County natives as were both my maternal and paternal grandparents. We visited them often. The mountains will be ablaze with color in a week or more and I never appreciated just how beautiful they were when I saw them often as a child.

I'm proud to say that I'm a coal miner's daughter. Daddy passed away in 2004 from Pneumoconiosis aka Black Lung disease but led an active life until the very end. He was one of a kind... my hero. By the time the strike took place in the 70s, he had already been disabled from this illness. Even though I visited my grandparents and relatives all through my childhood, I never realized just how bad the living conditions were for so many of those people. They were indeed treated worse than animals. My hat goes off to them for their passion and their spirit. They did what they had to in order to make a difference.

Shame on Duke Power. There's no honor in financial gain at the cost of innocent lives and deplorable working conditions... eventually we all face our own karma.

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Hmm what is the "Appalachian "hillbilly" mentality and stereotype"?

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I lived in Loyall from 1995 to 1999 - that county definitely is a beautiful place. But I agree with doctari here about being able to walk the creeks. It was still "mostly okay" when I lived down there. What Oxy hasn't destroyed the disrespectful ATVers have.

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She lived near a swinging bridge.

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I spent a week there helping repair homes. I have tons of respect for you all.

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I too, grew up in Harlan Co. Went to Cumberland High and then transferred to Victory Road (Or Brock's school, to those who live there). I now live in Louisville, but I miss it back home sometimes. I could never live there again; I like having all the stores and clubs right down the street, but sometimes... sometimes I just wish I'd never left. It's one of those places that growing up, you feel like it's a dump and there's nothing to do. So, you grow up and run off, and then you grow up and think back to when everything was so simple and you knew everyone. Then you think it was actually the best place in the world.

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I too am from Harlan County and very proud of that. I haven't lived there in many years, but there are still plenty of coal mining jobs there. Unfortunately, just not much else.

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Yes, I keep reading in this thread that all the coal mines have closed, but there are still plenty of mines open down there. Has everyone forgotten what happened in Holmes Mill last year already? There are a *lot* of operating mines all over eastern Kentucky - deep, bore, and strip.

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My father, may he RIP, was from Harlan County.
My relatives are Bowdlers, Blairs, Halls, Boggs's and Jones's. Anybody here from those families?

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I'm a Hall formerly of Harlan County. I knew Lois Scott one of the principal people in this film and was very good friends with her youngest son. We were the same age and went to school together from 5th grade on. I didn't know how much she was involved in this until I watched this for the first time in the mid 90's. Living just outside of Cumberland I would hear about what was going on in Brookside but being only about eleven years old didn't realize the violence of the events. I remember going to Verda to play a basketball game and seeing people out on the picket line with their shotguns. The talk then was that it wouldn't be settled until someone got killed. And sure enough that's what happened.
BTW Lois Scott died in 2004.

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Was that the lady with the gun in her bra? She certainly was a brave one. I got tickled when she pulled that gun out and she wasn't worried about it going off.

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My grandfather always bought his shoes there because he needed 4E in width.

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That's how I always knew the trips we took when I was growing up were almost over. 12 miles to Harlan, 8 miles to Evarts, 2 miles up to Jones' creek.

On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

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I grew up in Bell Co. and there isn't a great deal of opportunity there as well, but I wouldn't switch my childhood home with any other place. When I think of home I don't think of Central Kentucky, where I live now, but I think of those mountains of eastern KY and I often wish I could go back but it is just too hard to make a living there and a lot of things have changed since I have been gone for twenty plus years. But mountain life is a part of me as much now as ever 'cause you never forget your home and the beauty of it.

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