Appalachia

This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / 8 Comments

Every politician in a rural state with an aging demographic wants to know The Answer to The Magic Question:

“How do we get young people to move here and stay here to start careers and families?”

I probably shouldn’t think this is funny, but for some reason I do.  The situation itself is not funny, but the bizarre machinations around constructing arguments to lure 20-somethings to rather than away from Appalachia are a little bit amusing.  Part of the problem looks like this:  We say we want young, talented, intelligent, educated, passionate people to want to call West Virginia home.

Fair enough.

But then we talk about the offer, and about the very people we want to attract, as if they are not wise enough to see what is written in flames about 50 feet tall.

This ain’t no party.  This ain’t no disco.  This ain’t no foolin’ around.  

True story, I had some dialogue with a public school employee in a neighboring county last week in which he disclosed he’s had 3 students talk about suicide as the school year winds down.  This seems unusual, right……aren’t most kids thrilled for school to be out?

No.  Not any more and not here.  For an increasing number of children the end of school means three months of food insecurity and the lack of physical protection that comes from reporting to a public place every day.  It means hunger, and fear of violence, and isolation.  For many kids, it means exposure to serious drug abuse like methamphetamines and to its associated crime.

It means too much time on your hands and not enough of anything else.

This is but one aspect of our situation.  We don’t want to lead with such misery for obvious reasons — Don’t smart ambitious young people want to be in hip urban centers with lots of good times and easy living?  That’s what it looks like on TV anyway.  The thing is, I don’t think these people are the ones we really want and need.  So why are we trying to get them anyway?  No offense Jersey Shore and Gossip Girl; you’re entertaining and all, but you are the last thing we need over here.

This ain’t no party.

I say we market what we have for real and get the most hard-core world-changers we can. No one needs self-absorbed “what’s in it for me” types right now.  I’m not falling for the idea that these people are part of any solution.

This ain’t no disco.

We need that piece of the 20-something puzzle that wants more.  They’ve already done the research and they know that PR efforts to market the great outdoors and low rent is a weak sales pitch.  I’m betting we are on the edge of a different attraction…..the nation has suffered several years now of throwing off the costumes of wealth and easy money, sexy start-ups and Internet-driven marketing schemes.  McMansions, gargantuan gas-guzzling vehicles, and extravagant parties are dwindling and even a source of embarrassment.  We see more clearly what that all was, how false and how wasteful.  No one wants to churn that back up, they want to build on what’s real.

This ain’t no foolin’ around.

I’m not sure what is more real than the opportunity to turn away from “all for me” and turn towards “all for the world.”  Our world of Appalachia is in peril, and that is nothing new, but what may be new is the chance to harness global concern about our local issues to attract the right young people who will change the future of this state and consequently the world.

Life is short.  There are people out there who want to tell the stories of their youth as grand adventures in engaging serious problems with  their whole hearts. These are not the same people who want to tell stories of bar-hopping and overspending and trips to casinos.  These are people who are modern journalists and water quality scientists and child advocates.  They are health care specialists and teachers and professors.  They are small business entrepreneurs and artists and historians and contractors.  They are responsible natural resource leaders and sustainability experts.  Despite popular belief, they are lawyers too.  They are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

They know right from wrong, they know giving from taking, and yes, they are 20-somethings.

I don’t think they want a sales pitch or a hand out.  I think they want us to get out of the way and allow their innovation, perspective, and talent to change the future of this place.

Will we?

2018 Update: WordPress won’t let me embed this  video anymore, but you can watch it and listen to The Talking Heads perform Life During Wartime on YouTube.  Over 7 years later, it still hits home for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVHNwBbkSj4

Barely South: “Great Writing in Myriad Forms”

/ Elizabeth Gaucher / Leave a comment

Cotton Ball No. 1, Roberto Westbrook

I  was very happy to learn yesterday that  the Barely South Review is a new literary journal in electronic format, housed at Old Dominion University’s MFA in Creative Writing program. 

Twenty creative writing pieces are now online, and the program currently is accepting submissions for its next edition.  Submission guidelines are available on the website.

The “About” page describes the program this way:

The students and faculty of Old Dominion University’s MFA program in Creative Writing form a lively and supportive community of writers in beautiful southeastern Virginia.  The Tidewater region’s story is shaped by its history and its diversity—by its dynamic fusion of old and new.  There is great complexity in any form or creative assertion of “here”, and it is in this spirit that Barely South Review embraces the opportunity to feature works from emerging as well as established writers.  We are interested in great writing in its myriad forms.  We seek to present many voices, especially those that defy easy regional, thematic, and stylistic categorization.

I emphasize the last line, because it resonates with my personal interest in not only the  new “New South” but also in what my friend Becky calls “the transcendent new nation of Appalachia.”  Sheri Reynolds is among those on the distinguished editorial advisory board for Barely South.  Anyone who has spent even a little time with Sheri knows her to be a focused mind and wise heart no matter what she does, but most people recognize her as a compelling writer and the author of, among many works, The Rapture of Canaan.

If you are a writer, or know someone whose work may be a good match for this wonderful new endeavor, please investigate and share Barely South.  There are many stories yet to be told…….you could be the one to tell them.