Charles B. Keeney at Common Dreams writes—'Blood on the Mountain': Why We Need a Red Neck Protest Anthem, Not a Hillbilly Elegy:
A place mired in poverty, a culture of guns, conservative religion, poorly educated people, an angry and embittered populace.
These are common words used by journalists and writers to describe West Virginia. What may surprise some readers, however, is that I am referring to media interpretations of West Virginia in 1921, not 2016. In 1921, journalists explored the hollows of Appalachia in order to explain what caused roughly 10,000 coal miners to launch the largest armed uprising on United States soil since the Civil War. Reporters emerged with a portrayal of an isolated, backward, feuding mountain culture standing in the way of progress that the coal industry would inevitably bring. A decade later, during the Great Depression, a representative from FDR’s Federal Emergency Relieve Administration called West Virginia, “the foulest cesspool of human misery this side of hell,” and described a region of hopeless hillbillies helpless in the wake of the recent economic collapse.
In the 1960s, sociologists and VISTA workers looked to the “culture of poverty” theory to explain Appalachia’s enduring economic hardship and the supposed “fatalism” of its residents. The Saturday Evening Post even wrote an article on West Virginia entitled, “The Strange Case of West Virginia,” in an attempt to understand why the state could be so poor while the rest of America experienced growth. In 2016, in order to find some comprehension to the popularity of presidential candidate Donald Trump and to chronicle the collapse of the coal industry, a new generation of reporters and writers are exploring the mountains and looking for answers. It seems that every generation or so, someone is traveling to West Virginia and trying to explain it.
As a historian and native of the Mountain State, I have read many of these portrayals with interest. Very few, if any, new conclusions are ever offered. There are standard (and poorly researched) references to Scots-Irish cultural traits, talk of guns, religion, poverty, fatalism, loyalty to the coal industry, and anger mixed in with a quaint description or two of pretty mountains. Very little historical context is offered and the analyses rarely scratch beneath the surface.
A more authentic and complete narrative of West Virginia can be found in the upcoming documentary film Blood on the Mountain. The film explores how state governments and their regulatory agencies can be controlled by large corporations, the crucial role of absentee land ownership in preventing economic diversification in West Virginia, and how local education has been manipulated to shape regional attitudes against labor unions and climate science. Above all, the film chronicles the rise and fall of organized labor in America through the struggles of West Virginia workers. [...]
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Lieberman's bluff:
When my daughter was born, my then-3-year-old son clearly felt neglected, as first children always do in such situations. And as always happens, my son started acting up in a play for attention. In his case, he regressed on his potty training, crapping his pants. In a bid for attention, that certainly worked.
Enter Joe Lieberman, and his successful bid for attention yesterday, promising to screw Democrats for the umpteenth time by joining Republicans in a filibuster of the Democratic health care plan. Whatever.
As much as our favorite boogeyman loves the limelight, there's one thing he loves even more -- being Senator.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Mark Kirk wins Racist of the Year! Greg Dworkin finally backs up all his talk about monkey balls. Rosalyn MacGregor and John R. report on MI & TX budget train wrecks, while Brownback’s KS craps out, too. Bundys walk, NoDAPL protesters gassed.
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