Letter to Diane Sawyer regarding the Appalachian Expose

Dear Diane Sawyer,
As an eastern Kentucky transplant I managed to turn out pretty darn good. I understand that your narrow viewpoint of the mountains is constrained from your limited interaction in the area as well as your stereotyping of the area’s people.
I have met people like you before. I have met people from central Kentucky who accused me of "talking funny" because I had managed to obtain a slight accent for the time I have lived in eastern Kentucky. These people are the bane of my existence.
What gives you the right to portray the people of the Kentucky in the manner? Because you're from central Kentucky (or claim to be so)? You think because you are from a part of Kentucky that is, on average, more educated and more cultured than the southern and eastern parts of the state that gives you the right (and the nerve) to produce this expose and further brand us as "hillbillies"?
If you are from the state, why would you help to perpetuate the negative stereotypes of Kentuckians? This is treason to the people in your home state. Would you do the same to a poor black family living in the ghetto of Atlanta? Would you do a story about the 15 year old mother of 4 who lives in the barrios of east Los Angelas? No. Because if you did, you would be considered a racist, and in no way, shape, form, or fashion is racism considered journalism. However, because the population of the people you are referring to are white and the prejudice you are reinforcing is "regional" at best ("caste" at worst), it is considered acceptable by the viewing public.
Well it is not acceptable by me. Your actions are appalling. You have painted a very narrow, and incorrect, picture of the people from eastern Kentucky. We are a proud people who would like a fair representation of it’s people and not the most entertaining glimpse of life in the mountains. There are many people from the area who have went on to achieve great things in life, of which, I consider myself to be one. I obtained my education from the University of Kentucky and obtained 2 degrees (a Bachelor and Master) there within 6 years. I have a fine paying job and have refrained from falling into the stereotype of people who live in Kentucky.
You, a former Kentuckian, make it hard for people like me to be proud of where I am from. You make it hard for me to avoid judgment and curious stares when I tell people where I am from. You help to make me ashamed to talk about my home in the mountains. You have created a need for me to speak without a southern accent to avoid the stereotyping and prejudgment that comes with one. You have proven to be a traitor to your "home state", a state that I hope officially disowns you in the same way that so many residents currently have.
If you, ma’am are here to serve as a role model for people from Kentucky, then I certainly do not want to follow in your footsteps. You have turned your back on your home state. I, like others in the area, will blaze my own path in an effort to break the stereotypes that have been consistently perpetuated and reinforced by your shameful journalism.
So, on behalf of the proud people of eastern Kentucky, Diane Sawyer, please stop calling yourself a Kentuckian and let the self-respecting, loyal Kentuckians make our own name. We don’t need your help and we never did. In short, shut up.


Sincerely,

Patrick Lawson

Attack of (and on) the Octo-Mom

I think when we all first heard the story of the mother giving birth to 8 healthy babies at Kaiser-Permanente, we all rejoiced they were healthy babies (as healthy as they could be considering their birth weights). However, I began to wonder (1) how she would take care of the babies, (2) if fertility drugs were involved, and (3) as to the identity of the woman. The mother of 8 refused to be identified and everyone was left wondering why.
Then we found out. The mother wanted to remain unidentified because she already had 6 other children. When this news broke, many people found themselves bewildered as to how a woman with 6 children would end up with 8 more. Was this just a tragedy that she got pregnant again and instead of just one more child, fertility drugs resulted in an unplanned additional 7? Surely, no woman who has 6 children would want 8 more, right?
We began to learn more about Nadya Suleman, the OctoMom, and became even more disgusted with her and her actions. News leaks provided us with incremental information until we had the full picture. First we learned that she had 6 other children, then we learned she was unemployed. We also learned that she was unwed at the time of the octuplet birth, declared bankruptcy, and was living with her parents.
But that’s not all. On top of all this, she had the 8 children implanted through in-vitro fertilization; a not-so-cheap medical procedure. My first question is, if she was unemployed, how did she pay for this procedure? Surely Medicaid or Medicare was not used to financed the procedure. That would defeat the purpose right? Use government money to have more children so you can then receive more government money? Surely the people at Kaiser-Permanente know the difference between an elective procedure and necessary one, right? I don’t think an additional 8 children even qualifies in the ball park of necessary.
Even more despicable is that the OctoMom wanted to sell her story to a major news outlet for two million dollars! Two million dollars is probably more than I’ll see in a lifetime and this woman gets that much money for giving birth to more children than are featured in the Brady Bunch! If that’s the case, then shouldn’t we make the standards consistent and give $2 Million to every mother than births 14 children?
In addition to the two million dollars she has received from her interview, there is a website that allows people to make donations to the OctoMom to help her raise the children. How much more welfare does this woman need? She already landed the two million dollars for the exclusive interview and now people are giving her private donations?
I did the math. If she has two million dollars for her interview, and 15 members in her household (14 children plus her), assuming she only supports the children until they’re 18, then she has $111,111 to spend per year. That’s a lot more than I make and a lot more than a lot of people make. The federal poverty level for a family of 15 is $60,800 per year. Annually, the OctoMom has $50,000 more than the federal poverty level. To keep things in perspective, the annual amount of money she has over the federal poverty level is still more than most people make in a year. And the worst part is that we have people that still want to donate more money to this woman.
Some of you may remember a few years ago that a family gave birth to 5 or 6 children as a result of using fertility drugs. People felt sorry for them and donated a lot of money and necessities to help ease the burden of raising the children. The difference between that case and this case is that the OctoMom knew what she was getting into, whereas the additional children born to the other couple was completely unexpected. The OctoMom wantonly requested that all 8 remaining fertilized eggs be implanted because she always felt lonely and wanted to have children "more than anything in the world’. Her poor decision-making abilities are no different than a mother on welfare who has another child to obtain more money from the government. Her actions are distasteful, shameless, and in my opinion, have warranted the outrage and negative media coverage she has received.
Quite frankly, I can see why she wanted to remain anonymous.

The State of the National Past-Time

Given the looming economy and talks of the trillion dollars of deficit spending that we have been inundated with recently, I thought it might be of good use to turn our attention away from politics and the economy and focus on the advent of baseball season.
It was approximately a week ago (depending on when this gets published) when Sports Illustrated leaked the results of the "anonymous" steroid tests that were conducted in 2003. The name that was leaked that fateful Saturday was that of Alex Rodriguez. This so disheartening in the eyes of baseball fans because A-Rod stood to be the most viable opportunity to take back the home run record from Barry Bonds.
Now, I’m no Yankees fan, but to be honest, I was at least hoping that someone would have legitimized the record. That being said, "A-Roid" has dashed the hopes of many. He has been stripped of the title, "Baseball’s Savior", since his record is too tarnished by performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
We have yet to hear all the names that are on the Sports Illustrated report of big-name major leaguers that tested positive in the "anonymous" 2003 steroids tests, but I don’t think the results will be that pretty. The use of PEDs in baseball has been widespread. How many records in the books can we be sure are even true records made by those people who adhered strictly to the rules of the game? The list seems endless; Andy Pettitte, Garry Sheffield, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi (wow, I’m noticing a lot of Yankees are making this list), Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Eric Gagne, and many others.
Commissioner Bud Selig has even talked about reinstating records that were knowingly obtained without the use of PEDs. This sounds like a good idea to me. We need these records to remain in the hands of those players that worked hard to achieve such great feats and didn’t cut corners to get a competitive advantage. For me, part of the appeal of the game is that these players are good at what they do and got where they are because of hard work, dedication, and a genuine talent; not because they have the best drugs.
We need to keep the integrity of the record book in tact and remove the "records" of PED users. Anything less would probably make Ted Williams’ head spin in it’s cryogenic cooler.
Either way, there is something to prove this coming season. Baseball is jaded by the Mitchell Report and who knows what will come of the Sports Illustrated report when it is released. Baseball desperately needs a savior and to see some good this season in order to rejuvenate the faith fans have in the game. I personally hope it comes soon, and that it does not comes from someone that plays for the black and white pinstripes (Yes, I’m talking about you Jeter).
Scott Boras certainly won’t help bring salvation to baseball, rather he might aid in it’s destruction. Every contract he negotiates is like the Midas touch; worth a lot of gold, but when it comes down to it, the money’s not worth the trouble. His contracts get his clients the most money (breaking the banks of these franchises), but often these players are the ones that offer the least to their teams. I mean, really, Barry Zito? Get that big contract and you end up getting benched? Manny Ramirez still wants more money from the Dodgers and played there for what, 3 weeks? Fantastic. Maybe Scott Boras should be cryogenically frozen?
Thank goodness there is still hope; the hope that the Devil Rays (sorry... Tampa Bay Rays) gave us last year by making it to the World Series with a bunch of players the other big-budget teams didn’t want (and that really pains me to say considering I despise the Rays). The same hope that the Phillies can win it all. The same hope that the Yankees won’t make the post-season again. (Just goes to show you that the old saying are true; cheaters never prosper.)
Dear Baseball, I hope this season you bring back some class and leave the scandals at home. I don’t care if A-Roid left his wife for Madonna (and has recently been seen getting "friendly" with 19 year-olds). I don’t care that Roberto Alomar and his wife are going through a nasty divorce proceeding (where his wife accuses him of giving her AIDS). I don’t care about it all. I just care about the game. Please, keep the game in tact. Please, keep the game honorable. For goodness sakes, give me something to look forward to come March. Sincerely, Patrick.

The Generation Facebook Opinion Piece

In today’s age, the internet is becoming a vital part in how we communicate with each other and receive our information. The internet has also revolutionized the way that we obtain information. With all the advances that have been made with the internet and how the internet has been increasingly incorporated into our daily lives, it only makes sense that eventually a website would be created where people could socially interact without socially interacting.
Social networking sites, like facebook, allow people to add other people as their "friends" and essentially keep tabs on their daily lives. This is also the current trend with the internet today; it can increasingly be used to obtain information on people with a simple Google search. News organizations have done in depth reporting about the dangers of the internet and how there is an increasing amount of personal information available to anyone on the internet. That’s a scary thought.
There’s a lot of information on the web now. This can be both good and bad. For instance, thanks to the information available on the internet, my job is a lot easier. I can research facts and figures for my writing and even find contact information for people I need to get a hold of when I can’t find information I need online. I can also research mortgage rates on numerous websites and not have to rely on what a banker tells me. I have ways of gathering and corroborating information that 20 years ago people either couldn’t access or it would take way too long to obtain. The internet has made research incredibly easy to obtain.
The downside of the new age of information is that our government is not taking a responsible approach to regulating all the information that is available online. People are exploiting the wealth of information available on the internet to aid them in stalking their victims or identity theft. The internet is a very useful invention, but just like most other inventions, without any type of restraint or regulation from the government, it will be abused.
This leads me back to social networking sites. I have used facebook as a networking site for many years (well, since it was first available at my university). To be honest, facebook has made it increasingly easy for me to keep in contact with some of my closest friends and at the same time share in the joy of their lives when they post pictures of (1) new homes, (2) weddings, (3) their children, etc.
However, I think it’s important for parents to know about the social dangers of facebook (unless of course 20/20 beat me to it). Facebook, when it was first created, was intended only for the college-age crowd (to sign up you had to have a college/university email account). Eventually they expanded facebook for high school students and eventually adults. Pay special attention to that last sentence; they opened up facebook to both adults and high school students. Facebook opened its doors and let everyone in. Facebook’s selectivity was what made it, in my opinion, the superior networking site because it was unavailable to sex offenders (unless they had a valid email account). Some of you may have heard reports that facebook’s main competitor, Myspace, recently removed 90,000 sex offenders from membership. Can you imagine 90,000 sex offenders being able to access the profile, personal information, pictures of your teenage son or daughter? I certainly can’t.
For me, facebook was a great invention that allows me to stay in touch with my closest friends. But at the same time, this invention has been exploited by some at the detriment of others. I highly recommend that any parent out there that reads this column create their own facebook account and add their children so they can monitor their online activity (even the idea that a parent is online and can see their profile may be enough to keep your child from posting certain material). Talk with your children and inform them of the dangers of posting too much information in a public forum. Just watching MSNBC’s "To Catch a Predator" should be enough motivation for children to limit their online information and activity.
Lastly, this is just a small entry regarding the dangers of facebook and other social networking sites. I know that parents need to know more about facebook, but one column about the subject matter is not enough. I do not consider myself a facebook expect, but I do know a thing or two about the website and the history of social networking. I have previously tinkered around with the idea of writing a book and for that reason uploaded an extensive "chapter" about facebook on my blog found at http://patricklawson.blogspot.com/. I should warn you that the entry is relatively unedited and still rough. It can be found in the archives from November of 2008 under the same name as this column. This may give parents a little more insight into facebook and other social networking sites.

My Near Death Experience

Bell County has been severely hit with a rash of fatal and near fatal car accidents, along with other forms of misfortune. I think it’s safe to say that there are a lot of people who have been touched by tragedy recently. My wife and I were almost the victims of another tragedy.
Not that our narrow escape from death is any more noteworthy than the other tragedies that have happened or even other stories of escape. Our event happened because a driver did not yield to a stop sign and almost directly hit our passenger side at a high rate of speed. Had it not been for my quick reaction with the brakes, I assure you that she would no longer be with us and that I may or may not have survived.
We were extremely lucky that day, whereas others may not have been as lucky. My wife and I discussed what happened and we both were in amazement at how fragile life is and how instantly one can just be plucked from this earth. Before the incident, we were talking about buying a house and our finances; we were planning out our life for the next year never realizing these are days that are not guaranteed.
But that day, those really important matters (buying a house, paying our bills) didn’t matter to us. We were thankful just to be alive and to have another day to look forward to.
And that’s the reason why I’m writing this column. I know I am victim to tunnel vision at times. I think we all are. We often forget our mortality until we are faced with a tragedy that reminds us that we are here for a short period of time. We forget to make the most out of every day because we get caught up in the complacency of existence. We do not live to our fullest potential because we love the familiar and never venture out to taste the sweet nectar of life.
How often do we say to ourselves that we need to get out and "do things" more often? How often do we go out and do the things that would bring us the most joy? How often do we accomplish all those things that we want to do before we die?
I tell you we don’t because, more often than not, we put those things on the back burner. We think we will have more time "later" but later is not a guarantee. We know we have things to do later, but we don’t know when, or if, that later comes.
If you’ve ever seen the movie, "The Bucket List", then the idea behind this column is familiar. In the movie, two individuals (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson) are diagnosed with terminal cancer and begin to do all the things they ever wanted to do before they "kick the bucket" (hence the name of the movie). The difference between The Bucket List and what happened to my wife and I is that Freeman and Nicholson had a time frame of when they would die; my wife and I did not. We could have died right there and never had another day to make the most of.
The point is that we never really know when we will be taken away, and we often forget that fact. How often do we need reminders that act as the catalyst we need to live our life for today and not for tomorrow? There are only so many guaranteed tomorrows and unfortunately many people in Bell County are aware of that today. My prayers are with those who have felt tragedy either directly or indirectly.