Does the Scots Irish Culture Still Matter?

I find myself more and more optimistic that we Americans will locate the strength to pull ourselves out of our political and economic crisis. And I find myself convinced that the biggest part of that strength will come from the communities. That conviction, in turn, raises the question as to where our community strength will come from.

I visited, several weeks ago, the grave of my great, great, great, great grandfather. That ancestor, William ("Billy") Cornett, served in the Revolution and, like many other soldiers in that War, was paid in the form of a grant of land; his land-grant was near where Bull Creek runs into the north fork of the Kentucky River. Billy's grave is on a mountainside looking down at a narrow valley. It's beautiful country, but those mountains are steep. I tried to imagine making a living from that land but I didn't do much good in my imagining; Billy and his family, and his neighbors and their families, had to produce just about everything they used -- there were no Krogers and Wal-Marts.

While in Detroit talking with Grace Boggs I posed the question as to whether some of the Scots Irish culture that Billy Cornett (and thousands like him) took to the Appalachians might still be a source of self-reliant attitudes. Grace encouraged me to think about this and write a brief article for her newsletter. I agreed to try, even though I did not personally experience much of a self-reliant life. (I grew up in town, and we made our living from my dad's paycheck as a railroad man.)

The first thing I did, when I got home from Detroit, was to look for my copy of a book about Scots Irish in America; this book, "Born Fighting", written by James Webb (before he became the United States Senator from Virginia), is superb. But, as is the nature of my books, this one was gone. (I'll have another one shortly.) And I also started reminding myself of stories I have heard -- both dad and mom grew up in self-reliant situations, as did most of their relatives. And I remembered back to my years inside the political/bureaucratic world; those memories reminded me that, in general, mountain people tended not to defer to top-down authority.

I'm not yet ready to do justice to the question as to whether Appalachia independence might still be a source of community strength. But I feel myself getting ready. As an example, I recently saw an animated film that contrasted some of King George III's powdered wig functionaries with such colonists as Paul Revere. I believe a good case can be made that much of our problem now is that we have turned ourselves over to the equivalent of George III’s powdered wig crowd; and I can point to a number of examples in which the equivalent of Paul Revere (and my great great great great grandfather Billy) are managing just fine without becoming lackeys to our present day powdered wig bunch.

I'll have more later.

Bob Cornett