Putting my experiences of Life In NYC in a more personal perspective, and checking in with international/national, tech and some other news
Translation from English
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Eula Hall and the War on Poverty- CBS
ByDon Dahler
CBS NewsJanuary 8, 2014, 7: 22 PM
Soldier in war on poverty says fight is not over
GRETHEL,
Ky. -- In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson came to the front lines of his war on poverty:
the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. His trip showed America a disturbing
vision of itself: people living in shacks with no electricity.
Growing
up in these mountains was a little girl named Eula Hall.
Eula Hall's education ended in eighth grade, and she began working with community organizers.
CBS News
"We
didn’t have indoor plumbing, we didn’t have running water," she says.
"There was no health care for the people who didn’t have any insurance or
money."
Eula
says "people died because they didn’t get the proper health care."
With
the closest doctor 50 miles away on unpaved roads, something as benign as an
infected cut from a rusty nail could prove fatal.
Hall's education ended in the eighth grade and she began working with community
organizers who taught her how to fight to get things done. She eventually
became the driving force in changing her corner of Appalachia.
"I
was so happy I got to tour and talk to him," Hall says.
Ninety percent of the wells in Floyd County were contaminated with bacteria. In the
late 1960s, she got federal funds to have clean water piped in from the closest
water treatment plant.
Eula Hall
CBS News
Using
federal grants and private donations, Hall also built the first and only
medical clinic in the county. What began as a shack in 1973 is now a modern
facility with its own doctors, X-rays and pharmacy, serving over 7,000 patients
a year.
"I
love this place because I know when they open that door and they walk
in, they're going to be treated with respect, and they're going to be
treated with the best we've got to offer," says Hall, whose fight is
documented in a new biography, "Mud Creek Medicine."
Asked
if she believes the U.S. has won the war on poverty, she replies, "I think
we won a lot of battles in the war on poverty. I won't say we won all, but I think we've
done great with what we could do."
As
long as she has a cane to walk with, the 86-year-old soldier says she will
never stop fighting.
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