Authentic Voices from West Virginia

Truth seeking and truth sharing. Opinions backed by fact and reason.

It’s often thought that the scope and power of the Internet is enough to keep any person, even in an isolated, low energy place like West Virginia, suitably informed and entertained. But really the fact that we’re politically a monochromatic state, Republican red, puts us largely outside the interest of the rest of the country. So the outside world finds out about us mainly in the occasional news item about how we’re low performing on some social measure or how we’re laboring under some natural disaster. We don’t often rise in the estimation of outsiders as necessary to pay much attention to. 

On the other hand, what we think and how we act is of course influenced by the Internet and by national politics, maybe too much so. It’s possible that we lose sight of what distinguishes us from the rest of the country: our quality of life and well-being, our families and communities, and our cultural diversity. 

We feel this lack of regard from the outside world most acutely during national election seasons. National political organizations consider us uninteresting, because we’re uncompetitive, so they ignore us. We are not a bellwether state and, as a consequence, we get squeezed out on the Internet by news of what’s happening elsewhere. 

Since the national press largely ignores us, our concerns don’t necessarily get a lot of airing either. This general neglect means that locally citizens can become complacent if they’re Republicans, and fatalistic if they’re Democrats. You see the results of this apathy in many local races having no contenders from the Democrats, while there are multiple contenders among Republicans, each jockeying for the almost assured right to be chosen on election day. 

The upshot of our bipolar political condition is that we have a lack of balance in the proposals our politicians produce. A supermajority legislature tends not to consider the unintended consequences in its bills. A balanced legislature considers all sides of a question.  

On the Republican side, our politicians are content often to follow the lead of the national Republican party and bump out solutions to our problems that fail to address the particular needs of our communities. Meanwhile the Democratic party tosses out its own solutions, which largely fall on deaf ears and will get no hearing or traction in our legislature. The result is that the authentic voices of many West Virginians are muted, whether these are voices on the left, the right, or the middle.

Authentic WV Voices has the goal of advancing information about ideas, giving a 360 degree view supported by facts and exemplified by experience. We intend to feed these ideas to local media, political organizations, and local communities representing a wide cross section of the population. 

So here is what Authentic WV Voices aims to do in practice:

• Research issues and ideas to improve our communities
• Present the other side of issues, particularly when the other side has not been considered
• Cooperate with local media to disseminate these issues and ideas widely
• Communicate conscientiously and respectfully, but firmly.

It is not our aim to attack any political party, but to stimulate in all parties the kind of whole community awareness that would make them attend better to all citizens, not just those inclined to vote for them.

The tools that we’ll build include the web site on which you’re reading this Concept Statement, as well as social media accounts, podcasts, print media, and even word of mouth. On the human side, we are a group of writers, artists, podcasters, videographers, and technology specialists. We collectively represent different points of view and different demographics. 

We’re launching Authentic WV from the Eastern Panhandle of the state, but intend to extend our messaging farther west as well. We hope ultimately to span the intervening mountains and build a sense of solidarity and continuity between our divergent communities.