Tim Barrus, New York Times

I am a communist. Democrats depend on luck. Republicans depend on hatred. Sometimes the bear gets you. You, America. You are powerless to keep your own children alive because you are hypnotized by all your stuff. Do not sink this boat. Why. Not. It was never a boat to begin with. Women and kids were property. Still are. Tread water. Graphs and charts are necessary, I need them. They explain a lot. There is a place for that. This is Appalachia, and those of us who live here know exactly what that means. Cost. No one wants to hear about what addiction is costing us, too. How politics cannot answer that. What famine. Oklahoma dirt. We are not stupid. You, America, just think we are. We do not understand these graphs and I want them there. I want their voice. I want to hear their stories. But people here are afraid. Suburbs or no suburbs. I know people who say they wished for death, now. Not later. I get it, too. They say something’s coming. Steven King was right. Every change is news. But the media loves the media. Every conspiracy theory gets front and center on the evening WhatEverItIs that has misconstrued timeclocks. Not me. Like numbers are success. Back to you, Rusty. Now, the weather. The poor are hated and defeated. But even the New York Times has decided it is not a story given anecdotal truth, the personal, and the political is the same animal. It’s just easier to cover one side like a fetish. Which is fine. America itself is a fetish it’s ordinary. So is work.