Unfortunately, coal is still King in this state. Here in central WV one can see "Friends of Coal" signs in people's yards and on their vehicles. Coal miners make up only 4% of the state's workforce, yet the influence of the energy companies permeates our whole state, on the federal, state and local levels. We have a beautiful state with lots of potential, but we have to change our image. I am a transplanted New Yorker, and when I was young the only images I ever got of WV was of the tragedy of the Buffalo Creek disaster, pictures of strip-mining and clear-cutting of our forests, unemployed coal miners hanging out in a beer hall, playing pool and singing "Take this job and shove it", and now most recently hazardous chemicals being released into the river from which the citizens of Charleston get their drinking water. I know WV is more than this, but this is what the rest of the country sees. No wonder they think that we are ignorant and don't care. As a teacher I used to ask my students, would you rather be called ignorant or stupid? Ignorance can be remedied, stupidity can't. Wake up people!

. . . not so much because young people learned their three Rs---Readin', 'Ritin', & Route 77---before leaving the state, but because there are more deaths than births among those left behind. Considering how West Virginia is now only second to Florida when it comes to an aged and aging population, "A Wake-up Call" might have served as yesterday's alarm clock. Today, however, to this olde biddy, "Wake up people!" ain't gonna mean the same thing as "Wake up, people!"

... isn't going to attract the kind of new business West Virginia (and Appalachia in general) needs to replace its 19th century economy. It's a vicious circle -- the young people, especially those with college degrees, move away to find well-paying jobs, shrinking the pool of skilled workers that would attract new business. The question becomes one of how to break the cycle.