A Bit of Politics

Why misplaced? Do I feel lost? Maybe, a bit.

As you can tell from my last post, I love West Virginia. However, I’ve never felt West Virginia cared for me, despite it being the place I call home. One on one, I love the people. I love the places. And, as I’ve said before, I’ve never found a more beautiful place.

But, I am way too liberal and progressive for such a conservative area of the world.

Despite what some friends and family might say, I don’t think conservatism is inherently bad. In fact, distilled down to its essence of being careful and frugal, I can commend the idea. Unfortunately, some people have taken the idea of conservatism and ran clean away with it. And, then things go catawampus. Such is the state in West Virginia. That is all the detail I care to go into on that subject.

My point is, I never felt comfortable in my own skin while living there. A person needs to be who they truly are.  Life is short. We should get to live it in the way we choose, not to be constantly conforming to someone else’s idea of how we should be.  

All of those old white men who tell us what to do…..they have a heavy hold in West Virginia. A very heavy hold.

I’ve never been the sort to like someone pushing down on my shoulders. So I got out.

The thing is, I think a lot of people feel that way about West Virginia. The last census showed people are leaving West Virginia at a rapid rate.

So far, in this post, I’m only skimming the surface of politics. I am going to keep it that way for now. A deep and thorough discussion of West Virginian style politics is best kept for another format. However, I did want to acknowledge and examine the circumstances for my leaving the state, especially since I have spoken with others who have had similar issues. Also, it is important to realize I am, by far, not the only one who is misplaced.

West Virginians would do well to question what it is that makes so many leave.