Opinion & commentary
Opinion and commentary submitted to Appalachia Insider by individual contributors. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Appalachia Insider. These pieces are separate from our news reporting.
I looked over my electric bill the other day, and something didn’t sit right. Every light fixture in this house has been replaced. Not just the bulbs, the entire fixtures. New switches. New outlets. Every appliance I ow…
Read story →In Magoffin County, when something serious happens, there’s a moment that settles in before help arrives. It’s quiet, but it’s heavy. You’re watching someone struggle to breathe. Or you’re holding pressure on a wound. …
Read story →For years, Eastern Kentucky has been told it is poor, broken, and beyond saving without outside rescue. We have watched the same cycle repeat. New officials, old habits. Grants missed. Roads patched instead of fixed. Wat…
Read story →Most people think government happens somewhere far above them, in rooms they will never enter. But a county rises or falls in the quiet and ordinary systems that shape daily life. The road that survives the winter. The w…
Read story →In Eastern Kentucky, we don’t really have a land problem. And we don’t really have a labor problem. What we have is a water problem, a sewer problem, a housing problem, and an infrastructure problem. You can still buil…
Read story →More than 3,800 people in Magoffin County rely on SNAP benefits every month. That’s nearly a third of our entire population. But here’s the part no one’s talking about: That’s not just a statistic. It’s an opportunity. …
Read story →For nearly a century, farm bills have funneled billions of dollars into keeping America’s fields producing. But the story of that support is not one of fairness. It has been tilted toward the largest landholders, the mos…
Read story →“What “Full Faith and Credit” Really Means” There is a question I have been turning over in my mind for a while now, and it sits quietly underneath a lot of the news we see but rarely gets said out loud. People ask what…
Read story →“The Steward’s Works Program” Eastern Kentucky does not suffer from a lack of problems that need solved. You can see them almost everywhere you drive. A culvert clogged for years. A drainage ditch overtaken by brush. …
Read story →When people talk about housing today, the conversation usually begins in the wrong place. We argue about prices. We argue about interest rates. We argue about whether young families simply need to work harder or whether…
Read story →Every day, a postal truck turns down a gravel road somewhere in America. Sometimes it is a paved street in a city neighborhood. Sometimes it is a winding road through farmland. And sometimes it is a narrow stretch of dir…
Read story →I have sat in enough county meetings to recognize the sound. It isn’t yelling at first. It’s the shuffle of papers. The low murmur before someone stands up. A man clears his throat. A woman grips a folded copy of someth…
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