Kat Gale > Recent Status Updates

Slavery isn't just the story of brutality; it’s a story of resistance and opposition. This discomfort isn't about the history itself, it's about what it forces us to acknowledge: that we are still grappling with a system built on the subjugation of Black and Brown bodies, not just admitting that slavery existed but refusing to see the humanity of those who survived it.

FEMA deemed 46% of applicants with income below $15,000 ineligible for help, compared to 10% of those making more than $70,000. White, more affluent homeowners were much more likely to receive aid...the very government agencies responsible for helping Americans recover from disasters are exacerbating pre-existing inequalities, not reducing them.

The danger of being misled is more than ignorance; it's political and social vulnerability. A society untethered from truth can be easily controlled, it's people divided by lies while the oligarchies consolidate their control.

Denials of aid deepened distrust. People were traumatized from these storms. Traumatized. And FEMA came in riding on these white horses like they're going to save the world and almost every other person that went to them were denied...the amount of aid FEMA will provide is directly pegged to the market value of a home, part of why higher income families claim the bulk of the resources

Corruption is a seldom recognized form of exploitation in which an elite few are allowed to live off the spoils of public office and to preserve the status quo. Under these conditions, it is nearly impossible for a community to improve.

Reports of pain are sky high and Appalachia and several other rural regions, likely as a result of the history of physically demanding work in these locales...their disorders were often serious and debilitating.

Blaming government benefits for breaking the spirit of the poor is just the latest guise in a long history of elites blaming Appalachian highlanders for the region's problems. In fact, most of the low-income people we spoke with told us they were desperate to do more than rely on a disability check. Even those with severe disabilities hope to have a job one day so they could contribute to society.

The state of mind in rural America is one of "good rich people" and "bad poor people"...[poverty] is defined as a moral failing. The moral narrative shields the elite from having to grapple with the grinding poverty in this poorest white-majority place in the nation, with the long history of extraction & exploitation, and with the very real corruption that is crippling the community & perpetuating the class divides.

Local offials relied on vote buying&voter intimidation to retain power, discriminatory hiring&firing to control voters,& bribes of food, moonshine,&cash...Control of local offices enables public servants to facilitate illicit moneymaking schemes–some of which risk their constituents' lives...including the willingness of elites to make common cause with criminals, bringing drugs&illegal painkillers into the country.

The infusion of 1.5 million of federal aid threatened the power of local politicians, who mounted an intimidation campaign to ensure that the populace voted for the political machine's representatives to serve on the board of the US Office of Economic Opportunity's Community Action Program, which was later defunded due to their persistent corruption and self-dealing.

For generations, central Appalachia's penchant for rampant political corruption has been a millstone around its neck, stunting economic growth and thus miring the region in disadvantage so deep that it has persisted even in the face of substantial federal aid...the key to control of the region was the twin pursuit of both political and economic power.

On the embezzlement of millions of taxpayer $ [by those in charge] of a federal block grant that was meant to fund the state's TANF, investigative journalist Wolfe said, "It’s mind-boggling to me...that the folks who rail against these social safety net programs...are often the same people who are making their careers at the government trough, privatizing these programs and getting cushy jobs for their [friends]. "

If someone gives you sass, just stuff a Danish in their mouth–it works every time.

A lack of opportunity for intergenerational mobility in a place will itself spark violence. But violence can then hinder mobility. Taken together, these dynamics can trap communities in a structural cycle of violence, with impacts that cascade through time.

I found pockets in the dress skirt. I was so excited!

-We women need more pockets!!

The high rate of violence in the Leflore County is a response to blocked opportunity. The sense that it is nearly impossible to get ahead, plus the lack of ability to defend oneself against white reprisals, means that the anger boiling up in the Black community has no outlet except against those who are similarly oppressed. That the white authorities don't care only further stokes the anger.

That is the American way...to show up, to listen to, to leave this place better than we found it...Ordinary folks doing extraordinary things each day to build a more just and connected nation. To not be consumed by darkness or chaos...When the dark feels like it could consume us whole and turn us up and lose us, it is where we keep the light.

Across a broad array of diseases, central Appalachians die younger and more often than people in other parts of the country. The myriad health problems facing the region have been severe for many years. Even before the opioid epidemic, exposure to environmental toxins and limited access to healthcare are all challenges the region faced.

Big Timber and Big Coal provided much of the early social infrastructure in central Appalachia...As company towns closed in the early 1950s, much of the company-owned social infrastructure came crashing down in just a few years...destroyed all at once, like during a war.

Local activist and historian Warren Wright exclaimed, "We really honor our exploiters here, we mountain people do. Almost every town in the area is named for some bastard from outside the region who gutted it."

William Penn's Pennsylvania would be a place that would be open to all people, grounded in free expression, freedom of religion, free elections, and respect for others. I think about my responsibility to carry this forward–to go a few more miles in a journey Penn began to build a place that remains warm and welcoming for everyone–no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love, or who you pray to.

Political scientist Michael Zoorob and epidemiologist Jason Salemi have found that the density of non-profits and civic organizations, plus voting and other behaviors within a community, are indeed strongly tied to overdose death rates. When these spaces are lost, the civic safety net a healthy community forms to catch people when they fall is torn apart.

Nimmi Gowrinathan came to give us a lecture on the fundamentals of political activism. She insisted that the most important thing was to know how to transform emotional capital–the rage, sadness, and frustration produced by certain social circumstances–into political capital.

According to a comprehensive report issued in October 2015 by the Migration Policy Institute, the majority of children who find a lawyer do appear in court and are granted some form of relief. All the others are deported, either In absentia or in person. What is needed in particular, and urgently, are lawyers who are willing to work pro bono.

Social infrastructure–like public libraries & community centers that offer regular programming + churches and schools that provide space for recurring interaction–foster durable relationships. But when the social infrastructure gets degraded, people hunker down & stop frequenting public spaces. Social ties atrophy. Disorder & crime rise. Mistrust increases. Civic participation, such as volunteering & voting, fades.

The sickest region of all is central Appalachia. The most disproportionate cause of death is the sharp rise and mortality due to drug overdose over the past 30 years. The drug epidemic is the fallout from a modern-day extractive industry led by Big Pharma, due to the long-term decline of economic conditions, family physicians willing to prescribe OxyContin, prevalence of disability, and lack of social infrastructure.

It's very difficult to be granted asylum because it's not enough that these children have suffered unspeakable harm, that they will continue to fall victim to the systematic & targeted violence of criminal groups. The harm or prosecution must be proved to be because of at least one of those four classifications. The main problem with asylum is that if it's granted, the children can never return to their home country.

An amendment to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which was signed by President Bush in 2008 states that children from countries that share borders with the US can be deported without formal immigration proceedings. If a child comes from Mexico or Canada, he or she is immediately "deportable"– a "removable alien". This was Bush's last gift to immigration law in his vast legacy of chingaderas.

Agents of big corporations descended on rural settlements throughout Appalachia, scouting for timber & coal. After arriving at a farm, these "mineral men" would produce a bag of coins and offer to purchase "unused land" or the mineral rights to the property. Farmers didn't realize they had signed notorious "broad form deeds" which transferred to the coal companies the right to remove it "by whatever means" necessary.

Mexican children detained by Border Patrol can be deported back immediately. They don't have to be given temporary shelter, are not allowed to attempt contact with parents or relatives in the US, and are certainly not granted a right to a formal hearing in court where they could defend themselves, legally, against a deportation order.