Different Visions — Different Values

I am a big fan of J. D. Vance. I grew up in Central Ohio and went to college in Springfield Ohio 12 miles away from where much of J. D.’s bestselling book HILLBILLY ELEGY took place. The single biggest message to me from that book was that every person needs at least one person in their lives that believes in them and loves them unequivocally. In the culture of Yellow Springs and Middletown Ohio where drugs and alcohol abuse were rampant, where abuse and incest within homes was a norm, where physical violence on the streets and in schools was an everyday occurrence, where culture demographics and patterns of migration from the South for Blacks, Irish, and Scotch Irish created conditions that resulted in in a “social soup” that was self-perpetuating across generations, all created barriers to upward mobility that at times for many seemed and proved to be insurmountable.

There is a recipe that has been proven to be universally successful in helping people out of a generational state of dependence and poverty:

“If you get at least a high school education, work full time, and marry before having children, you are far less likely to live in poverty. How much less likely? As sociologists Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang reported at the American Enterprise Institute: “Among Millennials who followed this sequence, 97% are not poor when they reach adulthood. The link remains strong when this cohort of young Americans reaches their mid-30s.”

Young people who grow up in conditions of disadvantage and poverty, who follow this sequence are likewise markedly more likely to overcome conditions of poverty and less likely to require government assistance. 94% of millennials who grew up in low-income families and 95 % of people who grew up in non-intact families who followed this recipe were able to achieve financial independence with or without a college degree. The numbers are the same across all demographics and races—blacks (96%) and Hispanics (97%) achieve financial independence if they follow this formula.

A culture of poverty that discourages this formula is one of the biggest challenges the poor and disadvantage face. Will Redinger in his review of J. D.’s book wrote that “learned helplessness” was the primary cause in keeping the marginalized in a position of dependence that required government supporting a life of subsistence.” Many people in this class of “Hillbillies” believed that something had been done to them and that they had no control over their individual lives and circumstances. J. D.’s grandmother loved him unequivocally, despite her own drug dependence and state of poverty, but she taught him that that many in her community could not confront the possibility that many of the problems stemmed from people not doing “enough for themselves” After the book’s release Mr. Vance wrote ” You can walk through a town where 30% of the young men work less than 20 hours per week, where jobs are readily available, and they are not aware of their own laziness”.

Grandma taught a different lesson. It might have saved his life. She loved him but almost as importantly she taught him that his temporal material salvation was up to him. He had within his God given talents and abilities that were key to overcoming the conditions that had been part of his family’s life dating back for many generations of subsistence farming in Kentucky and West Virginia. She taught him to believe in himself contrary to the message given to him by many members of his community and by politicians pandering for votes. The link between positive behavior and upward mobility is contrary to the message implicit and explicit that encourages “learned helplessness.”

Many of the “elite ruling aristocratic classes”, those who brandish an academic credential, and many in the media who have never experienced poverty, or a subsistence style of living have a different message. They choose instead to divorce themselves from those people and perpetrate what author Rob Henderson calls “luxury beliefs”. Only the privileged can afford to harbor such beliefs because they are shielded from their consequences. One such belief is that all family structures are the same and serve the same purpose. Almost all of the elite grew up in traditional families with traditional values and they will encourage their children to follow a similar path. We all want many grandchildren!

One of the keys to crossing social-economic boundaries is having friendships that cross these lines. There have been three places that have facilitated my better understanding of people who are different and who grew up differently than me. Sports at all levels but especially in college exposed me to a different class of people than I had known before sports. Blacks from the south and northern inner cities, sons of coal miners from Western Pennsylvania, and farmers from the Midwest all came together for a common cause and we learned to love and respect each other because of our shared common goals and the work of practice.

The military offered a similar experience but even more broad as I learned to respect fellow officers and enlisted men and women who only cared about how we accomplished our mission and not where we came from.

Finally, the church needs to be mentioned as a very important place to develop relationships and thus understanding and respect for people of different backgrounds and races. This is one reason that I am saddened by the drop in church attendance. The primary reason to go to church is to worship God, receive His Sacramental Blessings, and commune with fellow believers who support each other. Fellowship also fosters friendships and allows us to begin to understand people who come from different backgrounds.

One doesn’t serve his fellow man by passing legislation that encourage “learned helplessness”. Going to classes or attending classes that teach DEI or “wokeness” doesn’t begin to address the problems that J. D. Vance’s family faced in Southeastern Ohio in the mid-seventies. Working side by side with someone different than you, for a common cause is a way for different groups of people to understand each other.

I grew up in an all-white community. My first encounter with Black kids my own age was playing little league football and baseball. We played with and against each other, but no matter the relationship—teammate or opponent, if we played hard and fair there developed a mutual respect. My first opportunity to work with a Black man came when I was 15 years old working at the R. J. Stoner Lumber yard. This was a wholesale lumber yard where box cars would have to be unloaded and restacked so the retail dealers could come and pick up their supplies. It was grueling work. My first day on the job I showed up without any gloves and by 9AM I had a handful of splinters and barbs and both hands were bleeding. A Black man named Willy Robinson who had been working in the yard for many years looked over from another crew and saw my predicament. He walked over and handed me his gloves and he worked the rest of the day without any protection for his hands. We had never met me before that day. Whenever I worked at the yard Willy, and I always tried to be teamed together. Willy always made me smile because he always smiled. He loved God and Jesus, and he would sing hymns as we worked, He was certainly a “flawed human being” as we all are. Willie had a cocaine drug habit, and every two weeks with his new paycheck he would spend the weekend with a prostitute. Willie was my first sex ed teacher. Willie never missed a day of work, and he never called in sick. He worked overtime whenever he could. Willie was the hardest worker in the yard. He gave me his own pair of gloves when my hands were bleeding. I never went to Willy’s home—if he had one. I did go to his church where I saw him sing in the choir. We came from very different places, but we both respected and were connected by two very important things—our Love of God, and our respect for work. We were both “flawed human beings”

In the end the message of J. D. Vance is very different from the message of the liberal elites—including Kamala whose real background is very different than J. D.’s. Kamala like J. D. is a product of her upbringing. Kamala harbors “luxury beliefs” consistent with her life of privilege growing up. J. D.’s is more uplifting. “You can still and always in our country control your own destiny’ Your ultimate happiness is up to you and cannot be measured by money or in property. There is not a government program that can help you if you don’t work hard and follow life’s basic rules”.

Willie Robinson understood this very well. Willie ‘asked no quarter” and gave to others what he had to give. Willie knew both the temporal and spiritual value of work. Willie loved God and prayed to Jesus.

From where I stand DJT, J. D. Vance, and Willie Robinson would be a much better President than Kamalalala.

They all love God and know the value of work. We are all flawed human beings.

Image by Gage Skidmore