Public school teachers in my home state of West Virginia have taken to the picket lines for the second time in as many years in protest of the corrupt State government trying to defund education. This is a problem that extends to the four corners of our nation and beyond. The reason is simple. Smart people are harder to control. Well-educated, critical-thinking individuals are far less likely to hand over power to people that have nothing but their own power gain in mind. When the government strips education funding from the masses and then follows up with a message of racism, xenophobia, and hatred, the ignorant masses eat it up with a spoon, while those in power are revered as being sent from God Himself to save them from the enemies that they themselves created.
I’ve encountered a lot of stupid in my life, everywhere I’ve lived and traveled, but it seems that no place is as Hell-bent on perpetuating the situation as in the Great State of West Virginia. From the creation of the State, mired in political hoodwinkery, through the empty promises of coal mine and steel mill operators, to today’s political snake oil salesmen, the West Virginia public at large, buys into the pipedreams and get rich quick schemes, all the while handing over what little they have to the men in charge.
Education in the State rates 49th in the nation. Thank God for Mississippi! The State was also Trump’s largest supporter in 2016…. Coincidence? I think not. What’s worse than that is that he’s methodically and systematically kidnapped, in plain sight, their tax returns, their education funding, their healthcare, and their very welfare, and they still worship the quicksand he walks on because he and his hand-picked play into their hatred and fears. When you strip away a person’s intellect and intelligence, hatred and fear is all that’s left.
There is a movement on Facebook at the moment to name the West Virginia Public elementary, middle, and high school that you attended and express how that education made you into the person you are today. Mine reads as follows because, though I love my home, and home it shall always be, I’ve all but given up on them. They have the power to vote and change things and make the State, and the nation, a better place. So if they want it this way, fine, let them have it. I want no part of it.
My support is strongly with the teachers! Few jobs on this planet can be as tough as being a teacher anywhere, but especially in number 49. What we need, above all else, is to fund education so that our children can salvage this damaged world we are leaving them. If education became our nation’s highest priority, some bright young kid would figure out every science, medical, environmental, and social problem we can throw at them, and that would truly make America great again.
That said, I’m afraid that the lessons learned here by this strike, by the law-maker’s reactions to it, and to the polls in the following election, will be how easy it is to control the masses the more that’s taken away from them and that it will bring about another generation of power-hungry fascists. Like a disease, we have to stop the spread of this ignorance, fear, and hate before it takes over the nation.
I am a product of:
Lavalette Elementary School
Wayne Middle School
Wayne High School
Because of the AMAZING teachers
and experiences I had in West Virginia public schools I knew when it was time
to cut my losses and leave a State, my family, and my friends, that I love
dearly.
I was educated well enough to see when greed and corruption has completely
taken over, at the expense of children and the poor.
I was educated well enough to see when politicians line their own pockets and
coddle their special interests at the expense of the land and the people that
make their State home.
I was educated well enough to see when racism and bigotry win out over love and
acceptance.
I was educated well enough to see when people are willing to cut off their own
lives and livelihood in order to embrace that hatred of the unknown.
I was educated well enough to see that lack of opportunities and boredom lead
straight to the bottle…pipe…needle…
I was educated well enough to see that there was no place for me there and that
there probably never would be.
West Virginia will always be my home. I will always look to those mountains for
my help. My teachers were some of the bravest, most intelligent, and devoted
people this world has seen and they produced another generation of teachers
just as brave, intelligent, and devoted to the betterment of the State, one
child at a time.
Until the average mountain voter breaks the century old habit of being
hoodwinked and sold false promises by the greedy operators, however, and votes
for someone that actually CARES about them and their children and their State,
the place is doomed.
My heart breaks for my friends and family who either cannot leave, or have
chosen to stay in order to try to recover what’s left of the place. I commend
anyone who has chosen to take on that Herculean (or is it Sisyphean) task. The
war against ignorance and greed is a noble one. This battle might be won
tomorrow, and it very well may be lost. Another battle might be won in 2020,
and it too may very well be lost. My best wishes to the soldiers.
Oh, also, I was educated well enough that I dreamed in French last night. Thank you Mme Oyler!