Crisis in Appalachia

I came across a piece titled "The White Ghetto" by Kevin Williamson in National Review Online. While a bit condescending in tone, the piece succinctly portrays the continuing downward spiral that characterizes a substantial swath of Eastern America. In short, an overwhelmingly white and notionally Christian population once characterized by frontiersman Daniel Boone and the rugged Scots-Irish persona of Andrew Jackson is settling into a future in which qualifying for "the draw," supplemental social security for the disabled, is a career choice.

Skim your way over the NYT map of American poverty by county here and you can identify those parts of America that Williamson describes. The bleakness of poor, rural life makes me wonder if Wendell Berry is paying attention.