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A Trip On Spring Break

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Over spring break, I went on a MOVE service trip to Kentucky. I was lucky to be there with an awesome crew of kids, both Saint Michaels students whom I traveled with and students from other colleges with whom we worked. We split into groups and spent five days working on different houses in rural, Appalachian Kentucky. We got to meet many of the local people who lived in the area and talk to them about their lives. I did not expect this trip to really relate to what we were researching for Environmental Justice, but it absolutely did.
Here are a couple of statistics that can help to outline the poverty issues that we were seeing on the trip. The average unemployment rate across the United States was 15.6% in 2014, according to a …show more content…

Sometimes water service gets randomly shut off because there is too much demand on the system. When the water shuts off, there is not enough water pressure prevent contaminants from getting into the water pipes and making the water undrinkable. Many water bills now come with the disclaimer that drinking tap water may increase risk of cancer. Because of this, many Kentuckians are forced to buy bottled water because they have no other options. Not only that, but coal spillages have been known to contaminate drinking water as well. Kentucky has a history of coal companies being protected and covered up for when something goes wrong, because coal is the primary source of income for many Kentuckians.
As you can see, the issues of Environmental Injustice run deep in Appalachian Kentucky. There are so many problems, all with different causes and deeply intertwined, that at times it seems impossible to solve. I believe that the only real answer has to come in the form of education. Increased education in schools, certainly, because it is important that students understand these problems from a young age, but also education in communities. We need to help show voters what is really going on so they can stop voting against their own interests. Many rural Kentuckians are so deeply religious that their beliefs can prevent them from seeing the issues clearly. They are so firmly against abortion that they will support any candidate that is also pro-life, even if that

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