The people here cannot read. You can say what you want, but I live here and deal with the tragedy of this area on a daily basis.
You guys can try to say this area is not poor and illiterate all you want to do so. There is not one single school in this state that I would send my children to after experiencing two different school systems here.... the best in the state to close to the worst.
If you think the schools in Sullivan County are "not bad", I suggest you educate your children in them then try to get them into college WITHOUT supplementing their education at home. Or better yet, transfer to another state and see how hard you are going to have to struggle to play catch up.
As for not wanting to live here, I intend to retire here (except over the border a few miles either in VA or NC). I was beside myself with excitement when we first came. It was a culmination of a life-long dream. Careful what you wish for, eh?
We still love the area, I simply wish we had waited until our children were grown and gone so as not to have exposed them to the lifestyle of their would-be peers.
You have given me an idea. I think I shall take my camera and create a Web site for the world to see how lovely our Tennesse Mountains are in all it's glory starting with the two huge yellow Billboards you pass in town that say, "Sunday Blue Laws are the Mark of the Beast.", going on to all the misspelled billboards, the dilapidated mobile homes with many animals tied to trees, the shocking junkyards that turn out to not be junkyards but residences where generation after generation has discarded their trash, cars, appliances... etc right outside the door, and ending with videos of interviews of our so well-educated and not poor citizens. Then the world can say "they seen" it, too.
If you had lived here in the 70's and earlier you would have turned around and went back then. You never traveled the good old USA much have you? I mean besides the high dollar tourist towns etc. You'll find all the conditions described in about all 50 states if you look. I'll tell you what I drove an 18 wheeler across country. I would feel safe pulling into about any east Tennessee town and parking overnight at a company in lets say Bristol or Morristown or for that matter even in Newport.
However in the 1980's when I had runs going into NYC and New Jersey, etc I would park in Allentown ,PA that night and wait on day light to drive in. LA Cali was among the worst as well. Some bad things happen here yes. Bad stuff happens in Kentucky where 6 satanic youth killed 3 family members one night in Greeneville, TN thereabouts. One child of the family survives.
I live in a double wide with a view many would pay good money for. It was a very wise investment as it's paid for. When I became disabled I didn't loose my home as it was nearly paid off and had small payments. Land? Nearly 30 acres. Water? Mine is likely safer than about any in the nation. Neighbors? If anything at any time happened I could call them and help would be there ASAP.
Again I tell you that you know nothing of this region. Many persons being dirt poor living hand to mouth in their youth have stayed here to make the area better.
But I got a better idea why don't you instead of complaining about how bad things are in Bristol do like many have done and change it. I doubt too many persons grew up more poor than Dolly Parton. She is now among the highest paying employer in her home county. So much so a temporary part time job out pays a lot of full time ones.
I don't know what state you came from but I'm guess either well north of the Mason Dixon or from Cali perhaps. Been there and did that in a truck. I'll take East Tennessee any day BY CHOICE. OH BTW say you want to retire in VA? Now in the 70's they had some real strict blue laws. Tennessee for the most part didn't. VA does have a state income tax to pay for all your wish book improvements as well as a required state vehicle inspection to make certain no poorer persons clog to road going to work. You want to put in a new mobile home in about any county in East Tennessee? Good luck with the inspectors. Lived there while in the Navy thank you. Go try Portsmouth Virginia and see how it suits ya also.