Word: appalachia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Verghese arrived in small-town Appalachia two months later as an infectious- disease specialist, and soon found himself the de facto expert on the new plague. His main enemies were ignorance and prejudice, his own and other people's: he met transcriptionists who would run away so as not to have to type up his examinations of gay patients, and dentists who would refuse to see unmarried men. In the tradition of the best doctor-writers, from Somerset Maugham to Ethan Canin, Verghese took it all down with a fine mix of compassion and precision, understanding not only...
Examine the following cases: the poor of Appalachia, the nation's small farmers and legal immigrants. Each group is on the verge of economic collapse, and as a result needs to be attended to now, not next year. Though the causes of Emily's List and the NAACP are above reproach, they have booming voices. More importantly, they are currently secure, both politically and economically...
...will come to the aid of the more silent groups? No pro bono organization can afford to speak for so many people of relatively little means. In Appalachia, the handful of elected representatives rarely see their far-flung constituents. The small farmers have a Grange that is a shadow of its former self and several small lobbies that are easily crushed by the huge beef, pork, milk and wheat magnates. Legal immigrants who are not independently wealthy, especially those from Asia and Latin America, have no one but their families to help them face the difficulties of making a fresh...
...poverty but the poor. There are no growing industries in these regions--no biotechnology, no computer software developing, no international banking. The economy still relies on the vanishing coal and steel industries. As natural resources evaporate, so do livelihoods. Viewed by outsiders as "white trash", the people of Appalachia are not the most apt to be defended by average concerned citizens. But without a voice, these people can only suffer the indignity of leaving their homes for cities in a simple effort to survive...
...pressure to conform. This is a far more diverse country than it was in 1892, when the Supreme Court declared, "This is a Christian nation." Millions of Americans attend worship services each week, but the locales range from Hindu temples in California to churches of snake- handling Pentecostalists in Appalachia. Baptist parents might like their child's school day to start with a Bible reading, but could a Muslim teacher choose a passage from the Koran instead? Do Satanists have the right to distribute materials at school? Would a santero football coach be allowed to sacrifice a chicken before...