I started this post a few weeks ago, thinking about it for West Virginia Day, but wasn’t done, wasn’t ready, and wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to say.
I am proud, damn proud, of being from this state. I am proud of the people that live here, and the sweetness and toughness that we are known for, historically. I am proud of our legacy of joining the Union in the Civil War - the reason the state exists.
That said, I’m puzzled by the general sense of complacency and compliance as another set of moneyed interests from outside the state make their way around, buying up land, buying up resources, almost all destined to go out of state. I’m puzzled by watching our folks happy for the table scraps of a few jobs, at the expense of degraded environmental conditions and capital flight.
As a friend of mine wrote on WV Day “Our succession was not about human rights, it was about money. You bet that since then, life under the fat cat thumb has taught most of us about those human rights”.
Hope we don’t find a way to repeat that going forward.