Change in Appalachia

I was talking to a friend of mine from Lynchburg this past week. Interestingly enough, we didn't meet when I lived there and attended Liberty U, but in DC many years later. Rick recently found a long-lost family member in near Chapel Hill and has since moved there part time to take care of him. His uncle is approaching 70 years old and in failing health. When Rick first met him, the doctors warned him that his uncle could go at any moment. His health has since improved somewhat, but he remains week and with very poor eye-sight. Rick's own description of his uncle is that he is stereotypically hillbilly, often voices racial slurs.

During the presidential election, his uncle would commonly talk about the "nigger" and how the country would never allow a "nigger" into the white house. About a month before the election, his uncle said, "Rick, there are things I would like to do before I die and one thing I've never done before is vote. How do you register for this?" My friend offered to find out the rules for him to register. The filled it out together, submitted out and his voter registration card came in the mail a short time later.

The uncle then said, "well I'd really like to do this, can you help me go vote?" It was obvious that this was really important to his uncle so he agreed. This was a little harder since Rick had to vote in Lynchburg, which is over 4 hours away. Rick agreed. He figured he could vote early morning and then drive to NC afterwards to help his uncle. Rick later discovered that NC has early voting so they went and waited in line to do so. This was very difficult because the uncle has trouble walking, standing (remember the long lines) and seeing.

The election workers allowed Rick into the voting booth to assist his uncle. He carefully explained the process and pointed to each circle while telling him, "this circle is for John McCain, this one for Barak..." Squinting, his uncle said "point to the circle for Obama." Rick did and his uncle darkened the circle. My friend then confirmed to make sure that he actually meant to do what he just did. They haven't even discussed it since.

I've heard several of these types of stories over the course of this election cycle. What strikes me about such recountings is that it is evidence that times and people are changing. No, not everyone. In fact if you look at the election results across Appalachia, there is no denying that this is the singular part of the country in which race played a disproportionate role in determining the next president. But even there... in the heart of where racial tensions run deepest... change has already come to thousands of people just like Rick's uncle. And this makes me happy and brings hope.