WV and Me, Me and WV

My Mountain Mama and I have quite the complex relationship

*This is your formal disclaimer that I will be discussing politics in this post!* 

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze

You know how there are some songs that you don’t remember listening to for the first time? Maybe your parents really liked them, maybe you really liked them–for whatever reason, these songs have just always been a part of you and you have always known the lyrics. Country Roads (formally called Take Me Home, Country Roads but affectionately abbreviated by most of the state) is one such song for me. 

I grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, where watching or attending WVU football games is akin to going to church for many, and WVU has the special tradition of playing Country Roads at the end of all sporting events. My parents’ house in Morgantown is probably four or five miles from the stadium, but on cool autumn days when I was younger, I could hear cheers, announcements, and, of course, Country Roads carrying in the breeze on game days. 

Country Roads is a magical song in that it evokes nostalgia for people who haven’t even been to the state–sometimes people who haven’t even been to the United States! I have heard countless stories along the lines of, I was sitting at a bar in Germany, and wouldn’t you know it, someone started playing Country Roads. A few months ago, Ian and I watched the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart and were mystified by the fact that a large plot point was a character’s quest to nicely translate Country Roads to Japanese. 

All of that being said, while West Virginia is thought to be “almost heaven” to some, its reputation can be much less savory to others. I would venture to guess that everyone has heard some variation of the stereotypes about my state–that we are all dirty, uneducated, backwards in belief. I think that some of these stereotypes stem from people pathologizing poverty, or viewing it as a moral failure. Yes, my state is poor, but this is not because it chooses to be. It is poor because of geographic isolation, lack of jobs, poor allocation of funds for jobs and education, and generations of exploitation and resource removal by outsiders. 

While we are talking about culture, it feels like an appropriate time for a history lesson for any out-of-state readers. Today, June 20, is West Virginia Day, the 160th anniversary of the day that we separated from Virginia to join the Union during the Civil War. It is alarming how many people do not know that we left the confederacy–second only to how alarming it is that in the year 2023 so many people don’t even know that West Virginia is a state! While West Virginia is currently a conservative stronghold–in the 2020 presidential election, all 55 counties were red–its history is far more progressive than many realize. Integral to West Virginia history are the Coal Wars, a time of conflict between coal miners and coal companies over the exploitation of workers. If you don’t know anything about the Coal Wars, I highly, highly recommend checking out this article from the Smithsonian, which talks about how the Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in American history and how it impacts the struggle for workers’ rights today. West Virginia’s strong history with workers’ rights movements is not even entirely in the past; five short years ago, a West Virginia teachers’ strike brought attention to poor funding for rural schools and criminally low pay/poor benefits for teachers and launched a nationwide movement. 

So how does a state with a strong union history and a culture of close-knit communities that support one another become a stronghold for the party of rugged individualism and, if we are being honest, bigotry? This is the part where I venture away from historical fact and into my own opinion, but I blame Fox News, underfunded schools, and, in recent decades, the alarming echo chamber that is Facebook. 

Something that I have noticed is that, when you lay out different opinions and beliefs without labeling them as “liberal” or “conservative,” many people in my state have beliefs that are far more liberal than they might acknowledge. I once dated a guy who was a staunch conservative (that relationship didn’t work out for a number of reasons) who frequently talked about how unfair and inhumane it was that healthcare is so expensive and inaccessible for people who need procedures and medicines to literally stay alive. That said, when I brought up the idea of systems like the NHS in other countries, he would say something along the lines of, “No, no, I don’t want something like that. I’m not a socialist.” Likewise, I have relatives who live off social security checks but say that they don’t support social safety nets, which is a very strange form of cognitive dissonance. People here have been taught to identify with those who have made a killing exploiting our state’s resources and workers and fail to recognize that we are all far closer to being homeless than to being billionaires. 

Most painful to discuss is how many West Virginians have been taught to hate “outsiders” or people who are deemed “other.” The pain that comes from existing in a place that you love but that you feel does not love you back–or hearing people say that they love you but vote against your best interests–is difficult to express, but things are not all bad. I want to make that exceedingly clear; things are not all bad. 

This past weekend, I saw Taylor Swift in Pittsburgh. It was amazing, but that is not the point of the story here. In the car riding up, my friend was telling me about her experiences with Generation WV, a program that aims to support and retain young professionals in the state. West Virginia is what is known as a “brain drain.” Due to a lack of opportunities and other cultural factors, many of our young, talented people leave the state for work. I once wanted to leave, too. As a Spanish major, I remember once having a chat with a professor from Mexico about similarities between West Virginia and Latin America and how I often thought about leaving. His advice was as follows: “Leave. Travel. But in the end, please come back. It is the people who are able to leave who we most need to stay.” Somewhere along the line, I guess I took that advice to heart. 

The friend in Pittsburgh whose apartment we stayed at for the weekend also added to the conversation, “West Virginia has the potential to be one of the greatest places in the country, but that is a conversation that is nuanced to the point where people who aren’t from here struggle to understand.” This friend is a co-founder of the group Anti-Racist Appalachia and truly one of the best organizers I know. Generation WV and Anti-Racist Appalachia are not even the only organizations doing this work. Fairness West Virginia is always hard at work to advance the rights and protect LGBTQ+ West Virginians (at one point, it was reported that West Virginia had the highest per capita rate of transgender youth in the country, and there are many talented and dedicated individuals at work to protect them). West Virginia Can’t Wait is a grassroots coalition that aims to elect local representatives with progressive platforms, including cutting healthcare costs, supporting family farmers and small businesses, protecting land and water, working to eliminate homelessness, promoting anti-discrimination legislation, and much more. The list goes on and on. 

West Virginia is known for its natural beauty with mountains, rivers, and more. In fact, the biodiversity in Appalachia is second only to that of the Amazon! I am attaching a few pictures so that you out-of-staters might marvel at West Virginia’s beauty as well. I guess, at the end of the day, what I am trying to say with this post is that West Virginia is a beautiful place with a rich history; hardworking, resilient people; and the potential to be truly great. We have gotten the short end of the stick in a lot of domains–education, policy, and industry being just a few examples–but I have hope that this may one day turn around. 

Country roads, take me home

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain mama

Take me home, country roads

Like any family dynamic, my relationship with my mountain mama is complex, but I am not ready to give up on her just yet.

Spruce Knob, West Virginia:

Audra State Park:

West Virginia Botanic Garden:

New River Gorge National Park: