PEOPLE ARE THE #1 EXPORT OF WEST VIRGINIA

 Almost Heaven or imposed Hell?

 

West Virginia has lost a bigger percentage of its population in the last 10 years than any other state in America.

My native state lost 3.2% of its population in the decade, about 59,000 people. That’s equivalent to every person living in Monongah, Charleston and Bluefield leaving simultaneously.     

West Virginia is among the seven states to lose a Congressional district because of the 2020 U.S. Census count.

Why the exodus?

Low pay, lack of opportunity, oppressive political climate (West Virginia’s vote for Trump was among the highest percentages among the states in 2020), poor cellphone and internet service (45 states have a higher percentage of households with broadband internet subscription than West Virginia, which has only 79%).

There are more deaths than births in West Virginia for the past two decades.

16% of West Virginia’s residents live in poverty. Only people in Arkansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, Lousiana and Mississippi fare worse.

West Virginia, despite being America’s second-largest coal producer, has lost 56% of its mining jobs since 2009. All the promises by politicians of both parties to save coal mining were lies to get elected.

West Virginia teachers are 48^th in the nation in salaries, so they are leaving in droves, spurred by the State Legislature passing laws that favor charter schools over public schools and its teachers unions, a tactic that has had terrible results in Ohio.

Rebecca Recco left Belle, West Virginia, in 2017, where she was making $42,000 as an art teacher to get $68,000 for teaching middle-school art in Oakland, California. That’s misleading, though, because $68,000 in California won’t buy any more than $42,000 in the Charleston area. But the anti-teachers union attitude of the State Legislature is a valid tipping point.

 

When I left West Virginia in 1959, where I was working at one of the largest newspapers in the state at the Charleston Daily Mail, for the non-union Dayton Daily News I got a 50% increase in my pay by doing it. My standard of living improved immensely. And jumped even more when, after being fired in Dayton for my union activities (an Olesky family tradition), I was hired in 1969 by the Akron  Beacon Journal for the final 26 years of my 43-year newspaper career. So much so that I paid for my trips to 56 countries, 44 states and more than 30 winters in Florida for up to 4 months and left plenty left over for my 25 years of retirement.

 

Ironicly, some people who retire in other states are moving to West Virginia because it’s far cheaper to live there. There are homes in Monongah listed for sale for one-tenth the price I paid for my Tallmadge, Ohio home.

 

Like most people who leave West Virginia, I love the state and its people, and regularly thank Monongah, its teachers (particularly Mary Turkovich and Sister Agnes) and residents (my surrogate parents keeping me from harming myself when I roamed the streets out of sight of my parents) and visit every chance I get just to get a whiff of Almost Heaven. But it’s difficult to rear, feed, clothe and house a family in a state that pays so little in so many jobs.

 

It is NOT a reflection on the quality of the people living there, who are good-hearted, moral and intelligent people. It is an economic reality. I admire those who remained, despite the unnecessary adversity, particularly financially. I contribute anonymously regularly in one-on-one assistance to people in Monongah. It’s payback for the superior childhood experience I had there. Because nearly everyone was a coal mining family, Monongah was unique in America for having no class distinctions – we were all in the same financial boat because the coal operators who plundered the land took millions of dollars to where they lived far from West Virginia.

 

Every visit I make to Monongah is like a family welcoming back the son who left very reluctantly 60 years ago. The problem in West Virginia is not the hearts of its people but the heartlessness of the political and financial system that holds the people down financially. These are good people who have had bad things done to them by ruthless, powerful people in America who favor people with yachts over people with leaky financial rowboats.

 

West Virginians voted for Trump by such a large margin because they are desperate to grasp at any straw, even false illusions, in hopes of bettering their lives even a little bit.

 

America did West Virginia wrong. And that’s not right.

 

Instead of attacking politicians they think erroneously are harming the coal industry they should be supporting any efforts to bring new industry and businesses into the state to lift the financial status of every citizen there. America owes West Virginia an apology. And reparations in the form of a more humane treatment.