Response to Letters to the Editor

In class we used a list of questions provided to analyze five letters to the editor published in Athens over the last few years pertaining to fracking.  The letters each took different approaches to making whichever side of the argument they came down on but all of them used techniques clearly different than what one would expect to see in a formal research paper.  There were claims made on the support of science for both sides but though they included numbers there was no reference to any peer reviewed studies.

Several of the letters only claims to authority were that their authors live in rural Athens.  Despite the quantitative data offered by Kevin Smyth, Michelle Greenfield, and Carrie Towne there was not a logical argument to be found.  A Real logical argument consists of more than simply saying “Look at these numbers- obviously my way of interpreting them is the only way of doing so.”

The letters taken as a whole conveyed a deep and mutual sense of hurt feelings and a ubiquitous inability to put one self in another’s shoes.  Aristotle said “It is the mark of a well-educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it as truth.”  By this standard none of those speaking on the issue, even the rich professors within city limits, are well educated.

These letters to the editor were not arguments to sway a made up mind or even a patiently undecided one- they were only ranting’s of people who feel as though there is not truly a choice in the matter and who therefore seek to justify themselves.  If this is the typical caliber of letters to the editor- Then I think this country has taken the first amendment too strongly to heart.  Free speech is worthless without free thought and the best evidence of free thought is novel ideas, which these authors lacked.   Furthermore, that one’s right to speak is protected does not mean that one ought to endlessly invoke that right.  In the public discourse, just as in personal conversation and self-exploration, speech is good only when it is accompanied by a more generous helping of listening.  Debate in my experience generally ignores this fact- preferring to present, anticipate, and refute.  Why is the ‘us and them’ being set up between neighbors?  Why are the CEO’s and shareholders of drilling companies not writing letters to the editor?

Justified?

Justified.

I felt obligated to write a piece about Raylen Gibbons and the Justified cast. In the episode we watched at the end of class on thursday, Raylen and the gang were about to touch on a topic very important to the people of Appalachia. The towns committee had a company propose that for a fee, they will come in and use the mountains to harvest coal and other resources. Many felt that this would help the struggling little town, others objected and felt that the people would be subject to harmful substances. My problem with this scene is one that is an actual real world issue and deeply saddens me. In this scene, the people were being exploited no matter which side they chose. Whether they decided to allow blackwater to come in and mine or not, they still were subject to a loss. This is inevitable, people are going to go through troubles and have to make choices in their lives. But the hurtful portion, and one that is not exactly represented in this portion of the show, is that the people of this town really have no one to trust. These poor people who are just looking to ways to live a save and healthy live, while also making a good honest living, are continually being lobbied by and manipulated to try and have their resources used. It saddens me that they constantly had to be lied to about what actually was occurring. I feel this portrayal of these people is extremely accurate and is a very sad truth. While one way they will receive money for their land, they also lose their right to a healthy lifestyle. It would be nice if one day there could be a way for these people to be presented honestly, with a serious proposal. Todays society is evil corrupt and many of what people do is in their own best interest and it hurts me to have to see these poor people being abused and have their trust be so degraded because of these kinds of people. I feel this is a great image that should be shown to people so they can give these people of the mountain towns a least a fighting chance to make a living and live a happy life.

Constructing Consumables and Content

In Glenn's essay she talks about factory farms and the corporations than run them. She is concerned with how they manipulate the consumer by using certain misleading strategies. Particularly their choice of language to entice the consumer to buy "non-human animal" products without guilt or because they lack the knowledge of how factory farms are ran. Many consumers do not know the truth of how their meat is produced, they don't know about the unethical treatment of the animals mainly because of the lack of transparency into the industry and also the intentional misleading advertisements created by the corporations. I agree with Glenn, the industry does make it seem like their cows are grazing on open pastures and are living a wonderful life. How would the average consumer know that the misleading advertisements aren't the truth. Before I took many environmental classes I too thought that all animals lived a great life before making it to my local grocery store. How are we supposed to know? Most American believe that all advertisements are true because false advertisement is illegal but this is not the truth. Corporations can manipulate their advertisements to bend the truth so that they can sell more products.

How Green Is BP?

Darcy Frey’s article How Green Is BP? covers the marketing campaign to re-brand British Petroleum as an environmentally conscious corporation. Frey makes an honest effort at presenting BP’s efforts in good light, but also points out obvious inconsistencies and skeptically questions their supposedly altruistic efforts. BP’s truly positive efforts of investing in solar and alternative energy research are contrasted with their continued, and far larger, normal business of extracting as much oil as possible from anywhere it can be found. Frey also takes a significant stance on pointing out more of BP’s problems with their campaign such as faltering on ads under slight pressure. More analysis on the true motives of BP’s efforts could have been beneficial to the essay.

This article is interesting because the blatant hypocrisy of BP is so similar to so many environmentalists. Their message seems to be “we have a problem, we want to do something, but this is just the way that it is and at least we are trying.” BP uses this to their advantage. How much different are they from the rest of us who genuinely care and take the steps that we can, but continue to drive, eat meat, and love air conditioning.

BP is in a tight spot, caught between being caring pretenders or ignorant capitalists. I liked Frey’s point that we are coming down so hard on BP’s hypocrisy while Exxon-Mobil funds climate anti-science. Is BP’s marketing genuine and altruistic? Almost certainly not, but the comparison with the rest of the oil industry is an important one. BP’s motives are likely profit driven and their message is highly hypocritical of the vast majority of their actions. However, their minor actions of pulling funding from the worst lobbying groups and saying at least something, anything at all really, is a drastic change in the worlds most profitable industry. BP is the first oil company to step forward, accept anthropogenic global warming due to their own actions, and advocate for changes. They are not worthy of praise beyond this but, borrowing a tag line, “it’s a start.”

Come On, Lets Think Realistically!

In Cathy B Glenn’s article, “Constructing Consumables and Consent: A Critical Analysis of Factory Farm Industry Discourse” she talks a lot about language and how it is used to promote non-desirable foods. Even though she herself uses her language to enhance her argument. However, in the midst of her very large article the thing that stood out the most was her basic desire to boycott factory farm animal products as her solution. She says, “Because the use of factory farm animal products supports a clearly cruel and environmentally dangerous industry, choosing nonuse (that is, refusing to buy products associated with factory farming) is an ethically sound choice.” This may be the “ethically sound choice” but is it the realistic choice? Often people with incredibly strong views fail to see the world at large as something that is very stuck in it’s ways. Radicals tend to believe that these drastic choices would work. Certainly they would, if everyone did it. And appreciated, as it is, Cathy’s faith in people, the evidence would show that people just couldn’t all afford not to shop in locations that don’t offer food from a factory farm.  One question would be, what are the small steps people could take instead? What can be changed about these farms so that people could shop from them at their cheap price? These are not simple answers, which is why they are constantly debated. But asking so much of a struggling public is unrealistic to the point of foolishness. Where else can change be made?

Justified

            In class of Thursday we watched a few clips from the TV show “Justified”.  The show is set in the eastern part of Kentucky in the Appalachian region.  The clips we watched focused on an executive from a coal company that wanted the residents of this town to lease their lands to the coal company in order for the company to be able to come in and take the coal from a nearby mountain.  The first part we watched focused on a town hall style meeting with the executive from the coal company trying to explain that her company was only trying to help the residents by bringing jobs to the area.  She also went on to say that a coal mining job was an honest job that the people should be proud of and that no harm would come to the local environment.  At one point a resident stands up and begins to tell her neighbors some points against allowing the coal company to come to their town and tear through their mountain.  After she presents her opposing viewpoint she invites everyone, including the coal executive, to her house for a “hoo-ha”.  At her party the local woman ends up negotiating with the coal executive which her company didn’t tell her the reasons that she needed to buy the people’s lands.  The local woman knows all of these reasons and is able to negotiate a deal that is for three times the original value offered and also for a four percent stake in the parent company, in order to have something for her entire family and future generations.  Although I enjoyed watching these clips and seeing the perspectives that it brought about, I’m curious as to how true to real life they are.  I’m sure that things like this have happened, where some people have claimed to look out for the town only to really just be protecting their own interests but the way that this was shot was made for television.  I doubt there is much if any footage from one of these town hall meetings, but I wonder just how close the TV show came to real life.

Appalachian Values

As we discussed in class, the Appalachian Values according to Loyal Jones include:

• Religion
• Independence, Self-reliance, pride
• Neighborliness
• Strong family bonds
• Personalism
• Humility and modesty
• Love of place
• Patriotism
• Sense of beauty - nature, music, & art
• Sense of humor, wit, and storytelling
• Protectiveness, standing up for one's beliefs

     In my hometown of Zanesville, OH, many of these traits are recognizable in our community. There are many who hold strong religious beliefs. When I go home for the weekend, my family and I always attend Sunday morning mass and there, we see the same familiar faces week after week. There is also a strong value placed on independence and self-reliance. Everyone makes due with what they have and they are content with doing so. We have many family friends who own family farms and put in long hours day after day to maintain their property. You have to work hard for what you want and be grateful for the things you already have. For the most part, everyone is friendly towards each other. It's hard to go to Walmart or the mall, or any public place for that matter, without running into somebody you know and striking up a conversation with them. Love of place is definitely present in our community. The people who are born there generally stay there, raise their own children their, and those children tend to stay. Our small town might not be much or have a prestigious reputation, but it's our home and we feel comfortable there.

Ram truck commercial

The super bowl is known for its commercials.  The super bowl is thought of as an all American sort of deal so it is no wonder why commercials like to play off our "Americanism" to make us want things.  I thought the commercial about Ram trucks was rather interesting in its play on what it is to be an American.  Most Americans don't live on a farm, but many view farming to be a truly American thing to do.  I think this commercial is really aimed at white Republican Christian men.  The reason I think this is due to how the commercial starts out.  "On the eighth day God made a farmer.."just this sentence either turns you onto the commercial or off of it.  I thought the intro was silly because I am an agnostic and because even I know the bible only says what God did the first seven days.  The commercial then goes on about how farmers are true Americans showing a picturesque view of what farming is.  The commercial ends with the a message "to the farmer in all of us" with a picture of the Ram truck.  The message the video sends isn't necessarily wrong, but I think it is misguiding.  The message that farmers need to be strong but gentle and insanely resourceful is really true in my opinion.  I think that the use of this message to sell trucks makes perfect sense because that can probably in Ram's mind also describe their trucks, but it is solely meant to play on our heart strings.  

In the funny or die parody of this commercial I think they did a great job of showing how farming in the country has changed and become exploited.  It paints farmers in a bad light which I don't think is necessarily fair, but it is very comedic.  My favorite part is how the commercial explains that all these things happened so God had to make high fructose corn syrup and then that lead to Mountain Dew.  It is interesting because in the real commercial they use God because he did this great thing by making a farmer and in the parody they use God as creating all of these things that we know aren't good like pesticides, and high fructose corn syrup.  The commercial makes makes me wonder how much most of media is twisted to what we want to hear in order to make us want to consume.

Values of the Appalachian

Appalachian Values by Loyal Jones

-Religion

-Independence, Self-reliance, Pride—ability to endure hardship

-Neighborliness

-Strong family bonds

-Personalism—getting along well with others, friendliness

-Humility and Modesty

-Love of Place

-Patriotism

-Sense of Beauty (nature, art, music)

-Sense of Humor, Wit, Storytelling

-Protest; stand up for beliefs, protectiveness

            When looking at the list above and have been living in Athens for the past decade, I can do nothing but relate to what Jones has written. Many of the Appalachians that I have met, have shown these traits. Strong family bonds, religion, standing up for their beliefs, and patriotism are probably some of the most well known all across Appalachia. One thing that I have learned in my decade here in Athens is that many of the people are really nice people when you get to know them. When I was growing up in Sandusky, I didn’t see as many of the same traits as I do now. People were materialistic, had to follow the latest trends, and didn’t have a high level or personalism. Some of the Appalachians that I know in Ohio and Virginia are probably some of the most personable people I know, always eager to meet new people and getting to know them. I believe that it comes down to a combination of the humility, personalism, strong family bonds, and neighborliness that makes Appalachians a good group of people to be around.