It was only after I got this issue's "5 QUESTIONS" answers back from a 90-something Buddhist monk in the West Virginia outback I realized I was running an inadvertent theme issue with the April 2021 edition of WestVirginiaVille.
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COVERSTORY: CHARACTERS: “When Earl Went to War”
American men of Earl Goodall's generation are famously not forthcoming about their psychological states or what it's like to go to war, people dying in front of and beside you. But this Korean War vet communicates all you need to know about that 'Forgotten War.'
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CLIMATE: “Why do you care about the climate crisis?”
The West Virginia Climate Alliance is a recently formed umbrella group that includes many key players and groups in West Virginia on the front lines of addressing climate change. So, why care about the climate crisis, anyway?
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SPOTLIGHT: To do or not to do? What the 2020 WV Legislature passed—or didn’t
The West Virginia Legislature has concluded its 60-day session after passing nearly 300 bills. What were they doing — and not doing this session? Erin Beck of Mountain State Spotlight details what got done and didn't.
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5 QUESTIONS: Bhante G on meditating via ZOOM, daily mindfulness and facing death
It is perhaps not as well known as it should be that a much-beloved, 93-year-old global figure in Buddhism has called West Virginia home since 1985. We check in with him on ZOOM meditating and more.
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IN MEMORIUM: Giancarlo DiTrappano
Recalling "Tyrant" book editor, "bad boy" of publishing, and Charleston, West Virginia native Giancarlo DiTrappano.
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SOCIAL/MEDIA: Recalling a life ended too soon in WV’s capital city
The shooting death of an 18-year-old student-athlete killed April 7, cast a pall over West Virginia's capital city, as yet more senseless gun violence robbed a family and community of a bright light.
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PHOTO/EDITORIAL: Springtime for a Supermajority in W.Va.
The desire to bust out of a politically benighted, often colonially run, and depressed-in-every-which-way state has a long and storied past. Where I am right now on the 'fight/flight/freeze' syndrome that comes with living in West Virginia.
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Overdose deaths soar amid pandemic in West Virginia, which already had the highest rate in the U.S.
Drug overdose deaths are up more than 40% in West Virginia, an increase likely driven by the coronavirus pandemic. "People are dying at mass rates," says one Boone County administrator.
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NATUREGRAM: Cleanup needed at the Huntington Museum of Art trail
I normally post photographs and videos of Nature in all its solitudinous glory, when sickened by social media junk food and needing more wholesome nourishment. But our dear Mother is not always picture postcard perfect when we seek her aid.
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SPOTLIGHT: Of Black Hair & Confederate History in the WV Legislature
Legislation is moving quickly to allow Confederate monuments to remain on the West Virginia Capitol grounds while the Crown Act to ban Black hair discrimination stalls.
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POETICS: The Art of Being West Virginia’s Poet Laureate
We sit down — digitally — with longtime West Virginia poet laureate Marc Harshman and quiz him about his "Dispatch From the Mountain State" in the NYTimes and the obligation of a poetry to be the sort of "political being" described by W.H. Auden.
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PASSAGES: Sister Mary Pellicane Moves On at 99
A look back at the long life of Sister Mary Pellicane, who died today at age 99, at the Catholic retreat house in West Virginia's capital city that she helped found.
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NATUREGRAM: Two minutes of nothing but pines, plus some calming music
We can't share with you the sweet aroma of a stand of pine trees in Putnam County, West Virginia. But we can share with you the experience of standing among them. A new WestVirginiiaVille shelter-in-nature short video.
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CLIMATE CRISIS: Getting to ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions a ‘heavy, but necessary lift’
A recent report by America’s leading scientific organization urges the country to adopt a modest carbon tax, pursue strong clean energy standards and energy efficiencies measures, and other steps to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. This is no ordinary report.
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COVERSTORY: BE THE CHANGE: The Tale of A Song and Its Two Songwriters
The COVERSTORY for our March 2021 edition is a twofer: Watch the debut of an original WestVirginiaVille music video of "Be the Change" — and hear songwriters Ron Sowell and Jon Wikstrom talk about the roots of their song and their long songwriting comradeship.
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SOCIAL/MEDIA: ‘Wait. Doug Reynolds said what about what on Twitter?!?’
The word 'gobsmacked' should be used sparingly. It derives from the Irish/Scottish word for mouth — 'gob' — so might be transliterated as 'smacked in the mouth.' But in slang usage it means to be flabbergasted, astounded or made speechless. I am sure I wasn't the only West Virginian gobsmacked by a tweet posted by HD Media headman, Doug Reynolds
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Seeking ‘clarity,’ West Virginia lawmakers push to turn more employees into independent contractors
The effect of a bill moving through the WV Legislature would be "a dramatic increase" in people working as independent contractors, without unemployment coverage, workers compensation, and other protections, says a West Virginia employment lawyer.
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GUEST COLUMN: How to Draw People Back to Appalachia
What will it take to attract more people to settle in West Virginia and Appalachia. Why not ask someone who has already made the move with his wife and their three kids — he's an analyst, she's an employee counselor and in 2016 they moved to New Cumberland, WV from the Philadelphia suburbs
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PHOTOSHOW: A warehouse after the workers have gone
What is it about abandoned industrial spaces that make them so compelling to the inquiring eye? Maybe it's the forlorn, yet intriguing glimpse of past workaday lives — the lunches, the labors, the left-behind tools and flotsam of work — in a place now emptied of human activity.
