A hospital administrator I know from nearby eastern Kentucky recalled a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer asking her high school classmates what they wanted to be when they grew up. “A drawer,” one young man said. “You mean an artist?” “No, a draw-er.” Someone who draws disability checks. It was the only avenue he could imagine for himself, the only way to get himself and his family fed. Well over half of Lee County’s working-age men—a staggering 57.26 percent—didn’t work. (The trend line was somewhat better among women, around 44 percent.)
