for anyone who doesn't know what this is. the dark red is the Appalachian Bio-Region. the light red is the Appalachian Regional Commission's mandated jurisdictional scope. the ARC is a federal-state joint partnership established in 1960 with the mandate to develop the appalachian region economically as part of America's War on Poverty. HOWEVER, from the outset there were flaws with the commission's outlook and approach to the region. namely, they sought to address poverty by setting up even more extractive economies in the region rather than de-esclating the institutional violence enacted against an internal colony. in the time since the foundation of the ARC, the disparity of economic incomes within and without the region has only increased.

there's a littany of reasons for this, but core to all of them is that politicians look at a map and see economic wealth instead of people. no respect is given our needs or experiences by the oligarchs who control these so called united states of america. they think they can decide for us our futuoe, and because they have an economic and militaristic monopoly on violence, they roughly can. lumber has grven way to bituminous coal has given way to anthracite coal has given way to natural gas has given way to uranium and is now currently giving way to AI data centers and soon apparently lithium mines.

these are sad and frustrating times

I was referring to the picture used in the op