.
.
.
We speak of the people
who live in this land,
people who love nature's freedom
and beauty,
who are alive with song
and poetry.
.
.
.
.
.
But many of these people are also poor
and suffer oppression.
The poor of our land
have been wounded,
but they are not crushed.
The spirit still lives.
.
.
.
.
Their struggles and their poetry
together keep alive
a dream
a tradition
a longing
a promise
which is not just their dream,
but the voiceless vision buried beneath life's bitterness
wherever it is found.
.
.
.
.
.
.
They sing of a life
free and simple,
with time for one another,
and for people's needs,
based on the dignity of the human person,
at one with nature's beauty,
crowned by poetry.
.
.
.
If that dream dies,
all our struggles
die with it.
This struggle of resistance
is a struggle against violence -
against institutional violence
which sometimes subtly,
sometimes brutally,
attacks human dignity and life.
At stake is the spirit
of all our humanity.
.
Pastoral Letter
Catholic Bishops of Applachia
.
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.
.
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Below is a video from the Google Earth Hero
series titled "Appalachian Voices." It's a good
"update," you might say, to the reality in the letter above.
And below that is a music video from West Virginia,
with a story about D. Ray White, a man who was considered
by many in his time to be the best mountain dancer in Appalchia.
He was murdered in 1985.
Both videos offer good insights into this most unique and, unfortunately,
somewhat abandoned part of our country.
.
.
.
.
Below is a video from the Google Earth Hero
series titled "Appalachian Voices." It's a good
"update," you might say, to the reality in the letter above.
And below that is a music video from West Virginia,
with a story about D. Ray White, a man who was considered
by many in his time to be the best mountain dancer in Appalchia.
He was murdered in 1985.
Both videos offer good insights into this most unique and, unfortunately,
somewhat abandoned part of our country.
.
.
.
.
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