I think the biggest and most damaging myth is that of the lazy welfare mother.  To begin, anyone who has been a mother knows that this job requires a lot of physical and emotional energy.  This can be coupled with the concept termed "the feminization of poverty." (yeah, I find that one a bit ironic myself).  It means that women become pregnant and then the fathers effectively disappear.  If the mother is lucky enough to attain childsupport it is a very meager amount because the father is also low income.
   The political and social system is not designed to help people get out of poverty.  There is no single entity to blame for this, it is merely the structure. Let us examine it as a time-line in an individual's life.  We will call him "Jimmy."  Before his conception, Jimmy's mother was a waitress.  She fell in love or she didn't, whatever the case may be.  Jimmy enters the world.  During his prenatal and early childhood years, he has poor health care.  After all, Mom can't afford insurance or to take much time off work for doctors appointments.  Also, maybe Mom was a high risk pregnancy and that led to some complications. Now, for whatever reason, Dad has disappeared and Mom keeps trying to track him down for support.  This is fruitless.
   Jimmy needs things, and that is extra expenses.  He needs clothes, a place to sleep, food, and diapers (that are outrageously expensive). Jimmy also needs childcare so Mom can work, but the average cost of childcare for an infant is 135 dollars a week!  That is about half her check.  His grandparents can't keep him because they both have to work to survive.  Mom is left with no other choice.  She must stop working.
    Now, she of course, can't pay rent and may end up homeless.  But, most likely the family will find it's way into public housing, draw food stamps and medicaid.  Here, they will  become stuck.  At this point, any attempt to work will put the family into a financial whole.  For every dollar Mom earns, that is deducted from her food stamps and increases her rent.  Then there is still the issue of childcare. 
  Provided this case study, which is all too common, how do we break the cycle so that we can change the mechanisms and attain a higher quality of life for ourselves, our community, and our children?

   I had no idea what it meant to be an impoverished Appalachian until I went to the university.  My only thoughts were that I had reached the ivory tower of academia, and, per the American dream, I would now become properly educated, have a career, family, dog… Half way into my first semester, I noticed a stark difference.  My difference.  In classes, people like me were discussed.  I was in shock!  School had always been easy for me.  It was my refuge from a tiny home of screaming children.
   But, the Great White Pillar of college was anything but a sanctuary.  This isolation was broken only by the presence of my, now deceased, husband.  He wanted to drop out.  Being an “outsider”, “a specimen” was too much for him to bear.  It did, finally, get the better of him. He left the university to become an auto mechanic.
   Myself, no, I couldn’t surrender.  It was not because of the promise of career or a higher quality of life.  I had become aware that these were abstractions, and likely unobtainable ones.   No, there were two reasons I couldn’t give up: I am obstinate, and I am thirsty.  Before my mother became pregnant with me, she had a miscarriage and was told she would bear no more children.  Yet, here I am.  I have always held this as testament to my perseverance.  And, when I say I am thirsty, I mean emaciated.  I am emaciated for knowledge.
Hopefully this gives insight into my on-going academic career. There is a part of me that has to believe that all the wisdom and education I have gained will somehow get me out.  Get me out of public housing.  Get me of hunger.  Get me out of this particular struggle.  I implore any in my position, and any not in my position, to follow me on this journey.