One thing you learn early when you grow up in Eastern Kentucky is rivalry.
From a very early age, I just knew inherently that where I was from – the Left Fork of Maces Creek in Viper – was better than the Right or Middle Forks of Maces Creek. We were different than those folks, and so, our Fork was better. I also knew that living out in the county was way better than living in the city of Hazard. What did the city have to offer that the county didn’t make up for in so many ways?
My parents, alumnus of Dilce Combs High School circa 1971, still harbor deep-seeded disdain of Hazard High School because they were cross-county rivals. And when the consolidated high school opened in 1996, hatred of Hazard High carried over. The two school boards had to cancel the annual Perry Central-Hazard football game – the Black Gold Bowl – for a few years because the rivalry had become too intense.
We Eastern Kentuckians love the UK Wildcats, but hate the Duke Blue Devils (this one is, of course, justified; there are few reasons to like Duke). We know the grudges of our grandparents, and we hold true to those grudges, remembering every slight we were ever told, and are able to recount them if ever the aggressors’ names are mentioned. Though the stories of the now-infamous feuds have been exaggerated in order to turn a profit, it is largely true that Eastern Kentuckians stick together and stick to their own. It’s just – for lack of a better phrase – in our blood.
However, despite the friendly culture of rivalry present in the region, competition is not necessarily how we should live our lives if we are to build a better and brighter future for ourselves. We need to work together across artificial lines of division that have been created to keep us separate.
The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX), a 5-year-old program of Art of the Rural and Appalshop, is working to dismantle those dividing lines. RUX – of which I am a Steering Committee member – seeks to foster connection among Kentuckians from all corners of the state across lines of geography, ideology, identity, race, class, sector and other barriers. Through this connection, an increased understanding and appreciation of Kentucky as a whole – rural to urban, north to south, east to west – is fostered. The hope is that by connecting a group of about 60 Kentuckians each summer, big ideas about improving communities for all Kentuckians will coalesce and eventually come to fruition.
RUX believes that we are stronger and more resilient together than we are divided, and in order to move forward and build the Kentucky we want to see, we must come together in real and meaningful ways. To that end, RUX offers three weekend-long Community Intensives each summer. During the Community Intensives, participants are guided through leadership development activities and community learning that includes cultural exchange, history lessons, deep discussions of place, people and community, and facilitated time to think deeply about how the relationships being formed could develop into community change.
RUX has served more than 200 Kentuckians from 42 counties over its five years, and it intends to keep growing. We continue to search for new areas of growth – both in terms of which communities we’ll travel to next, but also, who we have yet to reach with this work. We are constantly keeping our vision aimed at growing the circle and further breaking down divisions that have kept us apart. Though friendly rivalries will remain, RUX will keep stepping over dividing lines to facilitate building the future together, with all Kentuckians, for all Kentuckians.
