Frank Kilgore wants to take away your fried chicken

Here is a piece of writing by St. Paul lawyer Frank Kilgore, on educating Appalachia out of poverty and disease.

It says in part:

"[O]ur region’s health care statistics are still shameful, and the images of the huge crowds at annual Remote Area Medical (RAM) health care events in the Virginia communities of Wise and Grundy are not acceptable in the world’s richest nation in one of the nation’s richest states. When under served citizens will stand in line for hours and sleep in cars overnight just to have a throbbing tooth pulled or to obtain life saving medicines, something very bad has gone wrong."

It also says:

"Holding parents and caretakers more accountable for harming children with second hand smoke, drug use and alcohol abuse would be a good start as well. The throngs of adults who attend coalfield higher education institutions should follow the examples of the Appalachian School of Law and the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy. These graduate schools located in Buchanan County, Virginia are national leaders in requiring community services of their students to promote healthier living, leadership and guidance to the young generations who will soon face the option of staying in their coalfield communities to seek higher education and making a difference, or leaving the region and continuing the “brain drain” that ultimately disables progress."

I heard an interesting discussion while driving back from Nashville last night, either Fresh Air or some similar left-wing Public Radio program, and the gist was that the European Union is more intrusive in matters of public health and safety - because there the government winds up footing the bill for the health consequences.