美国国家公共电台 NPR NPR Poll: Rural Americans Are Worried About Addiction And Jobs, But Remain Optimistic

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Drug addiction¹ and the economy - according to a new poll, that is what is on the minds of rural voters as they go to the polls this election season. The poll was done by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But NPR's Alison Kodjak reports that even with those real challenges, many rural Americans are optimistic about the future.

ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE²: If you want a picture of the troubles that face some rural communities, you can call Brenda, a self-described homemaker from the heart of Appalachia. She's 57 and married to a former coal miner.

BRENDA: He's suffering with black lung and having a real hard time breathing, so it was time for him to come out anyway.

KODJAK: And drug addiction has hit her family - especially her two grandsons - hard.

BRENDA: My daughter and her husband have got two sons, and he walked off and left them because he couldn't give up his drug habit.

KODJAK: He's still alive. But some of her other relatives aren't, including her niece.

BRENDA: They found her in her home last September. She was 33 years old, and she left behind three boys.

KODJAK: Brenda - NPR is not using her last name to shield her grandchildren - lives in Coeburn, Va., a town of about 2,000 people near the point where Virginia meets Kentucky and Tennessee. Her experience fits into the findings of our new poll, which shows that in rural America, drug abuse ranks with the economic outlook as residents' top worry. Almost half of rural Americans have been personally affected³ by the opioid crisis. When we asked if they personally know someone who struggled with addiction, 49 percent said yes. Brenda says it's worse in her community.

BRENDA: If you were to approach 10 families randomly⁴ and give them a piece of paper and have, do you have someone in your immediate⁵ family on drugs? - 8 out of 10 would say yes.

KODJAK: Brenda says in Coeburn, jobs and opportunities have dried up. State officials have been promising⁶ to bring in economic development, but none of it has reached her community yet.

BRENDA: If you come out of college with a degree, you're more than likely going to leave this area to find work.

KODJAK: But experiences in rural America vary widely, and our poll bears that out. The survey of 1,300 adults all living in rural areas shows that many people are optimistic about the future of their communities. Most of the people we surveyed say they're better off financially than their parents, and a majority think their children will do better still. Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard Chan School, directed our poll.

ROBERT BLENDON: They're optimistic about the future, and they're also optimistic that things can be done to pull them out of these economic problems that they face.

BLENDON: While some rural communities are suffering, others are thriving, says Christopher Thornberg, the founder⁷ of Beacon⁸ Economics in Los Angeles.

CHRISTOPHER THORNBERG: You might have a coal town and an oil town. Well, the coal town is doing terrible because coal can't compete in this era of cheap natural gas. On the other hand, because of fracking, these rural communities sitting on shale⁹ oil are booming. And incomes are up dramatically as a result of all that new money flowing into the region for oil exploration and drilling.

KODJAK: The economy in Grenada, Miss., a city of 14,000 about halfway¹⁰ between Jackson and Memphis, Tenn., is doing well, says Akail Powell.

AKAIL POWELL: There's a lot of job opportunities.

KODJAK: Powell is a 24-year-old truck driver who grew up in Grenada. He says the town has a drug problem, but its economy is growing.

POWELL: It's almost like a thriving town that's starting to expand farther. And bigger restaurants are being put here now. Within the past two years, we have really developed.

KODJAK: And Brenda says she's seeing flickers¹¹ of hope in Coeburn. The town's high school has a new football coach, and the community has come together to support the players.

BRENDA: You know one of the inflatable helmets that the kids run through? We bought them one of them. It was $2,600. We've refurbished their weight room all in one year. So there's good people. There's good, hardworking people.

KODJAK: Even though sometimes things still look bleak¹², Brenda says her view of her community is getting better.

Alison Kodjak, NPR News.

[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The audio version of this story mischaracterizes the NPR poll by saying it was limited to rural voters. The poll surveyed a representative sample of all rural Americans.]

1 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

5 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

6 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

7 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

8 beacon   

n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔

参考例句：

• The blink of beacon could be seen for miles.灯塔的光亮在数英里之外都能看见。
• The only light over the deep black sea was the blink shone from the beacon.黑黢黢的海面上唯一的光明就只有灯塔上闪现的亮光了。

9 shale   

n.页岩，泥板岩

参考例句：

• We can extract oil from shale.我们可以从页岩中提取石油。
• Most of the rock in this mountain is shale.这座山上大部分的岩石都是页岩。

10 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

11 flickers   

电影制片业； （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The fire flickers low. 炉火颤动欲灭。
• A strange idea flickers in my mind. 一种奇怪的思想又在我脑中燃烧了。

12 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。