An Ode to Appalachia
A few years back, I became curious about my genealogy and where exactly my ancestors came from. My understanding of my ancestors and genealogy is limited, but the one thing I do know is that my dad’s side of the family lived in southern West Virginia and settled in the Appalachian region after they arrived from Europe. That means many family members, recent or distance, spent a lot of time working in industries such as coal mining, railroads and quite possibly logging/timber. Historically, those jobs have been the most abundant in the Appalachian region which is probably why my dad left as soon as he became an adult.
My father was raised by his grandmother, a common practice in rural Appalachia. He grew up in Mingo County, West Virginia which is right on the boarder of Eastern Kentucky. I suspect he was a round peg trying to fit into a square hole living in such a religious, conservative and isolated place. He moved to Richmond, Kentucky for college to attend Eastern Kentucky University to become a French teacher. During college, he spent some summers in France as well as New Orleans which tells you my dad had great taste in terms of traveling. Luckily for me, when college ended, he moved to Northern Kentucky and began working at Campbell County High School to teach French. He hated teaching and moved on relatively quickly, but he stayed put in Cincinnati, only returning to Appalachia to visit his grandmother, mom, brothers and sisters.
Cincinnati, despite all of its flaws, accepted ample amounts of what would be termed as “urban Appalachians” into our city, my dad being one of them. When you consider our culture and politics, there is no doubt in my mind there has been a heavy influence from rural places in Kentucky, West Virginia and eastern Ohio. You certainly see this influence due to our city’s position on the Ohio River, with many people migrating to Cincinnati for better jobs and a better life than what rural Appalachia could offer them. And I’d certainly argue they found a better life here opposed to the isolation of the mountains. I go back to West Virginia to visit relatives 2 or 3 times per year and it is certainly the place I most identify with in terms of my ancestry. I can tell you absolutely nothing about the European ancestors that came to the United States, but I can talk confidently about my Appalachian and West Virginian ancestors.
Every time I travel to rural West Virginia, it always leaves a lasting impression for better or for worse. The 480-million-year-old mountains of Appalachia are always looming and there’s just something about them that’s unusual. It’s almost as if the trees and wildlife are signaling to the human occupants that they should not be living in such an isolated and untamed place. I suspect the isolation has greatly hindered the economic and social development of the Appalachian people, particularly in the state of West Virginia. It’s as if the rest of the United States moved on, technologically, academically and socially, while West Virginia is stuck sometime in the past. They don’t have access to great healthcare or high-quality education and their infrastructure is limited due to the rugged terrain. Their politics and way of life has always revolved around coal-mining, a non-renewable resource that will run out eventually. Recently, Democrats have come down hard on coal-mining due to ecological concerns as well as the rise of green energies. These policies have turned the politics of West Virginia a deep, dark red despite historically supporting plenty of Democrats over the years.
Image of the Appalachian Mountains taken by Sean Foster, compliments of Unsplash.com
Regardless, it seems like Appalachia is a place forgotten about by the leaders of our country and I doubt that’ll change any time soon. Their way of life is extremely different than ours, despite Cincinnati being Appalachian adjacent and being positioned close by. But there’s still something about the state of West Virginia that has an alluring appeal; a strange sense of freedom unlike any other place I’ve been. With that freedom comes all sorts of problems that plague Appalachia: extreme poverty, an opioid crisis and lower than average health outcomes for its residents. I have no idea how to fix it, but I certainly can recognize when a place has absolutely no support or investment from the government that they pay taxes to. It also reminds me of various third world countries I’ve been to in the sense that corporations and the wealthy come in, extract natural resources and then immediately leave when the natural resources dry up. Some of the things you see in rural Appalachia make you wonder how citizens that live in the richest country of the world deserve such harsh living conditions.
In the 1960s, President Kennedy took it upon himself to try and help out Appalachia and created the President’s Appalachian Regional Commission. It was a body of state governors and various cabinet level officials whose goal was to address the persistent economic disparities present in the region. It’s very evident that something similar needs to happen again. But like I mentioned before, I doubt a Republican or Democrat will be rushing in to save Appalachia. Trump boasted his love for coal when he ran in 2016 but ultimately, he did nothing to help Appalachia. The region’s love affair with Trump still persists and I fear the issues plaguing the region are just a self-fulfilling cycle at this point. Poor education rates, low wages, dangerous working conditions and poor health outcomes probably make the residents feel helpless in terms of politics and government. These are people who are just surviving and it’s frustrating that an area like this could exist in the United States of America in the year 2023. What’s evident, however, is the unbridled capitalism present in places like West Virginia do nothing for the long-term health of the region or its residents. Since that’s ultimately where my ancestors are from, I hope one day that may change but I won’t hold my breath.