Create West Virginia

The answer to that question has changed over time.  Geographic realities that match supply and demand have changed many a community’s growth and decline.   Thriving river towns are now almost non-existent and rich cultures tied to industries like gold mining are relegated now only to myths and legend.  Each cycle of economic change alters the landscape in this way and in previous generations, people have followed the industries across seas, borders, down the river and over the dust bowl. 

 

Contrary to our idea that families stuck together, the reality is that throughout history families would be considered privileged or lucky to stay intact.  Our traditions which have become obligations in modern day were ways that families without telephone or automobile could stay warm, well fed, hopeful and see loved ones with whom life’s realities had taken them away from the home they were raised.  

 

In recent years the cellular telephone, the internet, and hand held devices that connect us have changed the landscape no longer requiring a physical movement on a large scale to access information and opportunities.  Why then do we still see a large numbers of people moving from smaller communities to larger ones making thriving cities larger and struggling cities smaller?  To understand the answer to this question you must ask yourself “what is the new supply and demand?”  The answer is creative people. 

 

Creative people are in demand.   Successful larger cities are recruiting our youth, our oppressed, our creative folks, and our outcasts.  Situations that once caused people to hit a glass ceiling are now propelling them forward in jobs.  The end result is declining communities.

Along with losing their primary economic industries, communities are simultaneously losing their edge for creating new business by losing the very asset that is the next cycle in human economic evolution.  For West Virginia to be a competitor in this new world it is vital to have low barriers for entry both for new business and for people. 

 

It is for this reason Charleston’s Stop the Hate Rally was so immediately successful in bringing together people who do not normally find themselves in the same room with each other.  The initial bond was created by an opposing force, which was overall motivated by generalized hate from the Westboro Baptist Church group rather than the usual targeted kind of hate. 

However, the successful implementation of the strategies employed for this rally were motivated by the desire to build a stronger economic base.  The folks in the room know West Virginia is seen as a homogeneous ethnocentric dead end for those who were not born and raised in the state.  Those born here it may see it as a declining place of less opportunity for financial growth, especially for young parents and their children. 

West Virginia’s leaders have finally realized the new product the states are playing tug-of-war over is creative and diverse peoples.  If no response was rallied, we might have been able to ignore the handful of disturbed visitors from Westboro (whose message is almost too ridiculous to even discuss), but in ignoring the response an opportunity to show the world we are an inclusive place would have been lost.  Far beyond its feel-good morally appropriate lesson was the hope that this might be the start of a trend that could begin to build a new, more prosperous West Virginia.  In the end a prosperous West Virginia will in turn create an even more inclusive West Virginia. 

It is for these reasons continued discussion and evaluation of these concepts is respectively requested for the next Create West Virginia Conference in October 2010.  A panel of people from both Charleston and Wheeling who were directly involved in responses to hate would be an ideal fit for the conference.