As some of you may know, I’m moving from West Virginia to Washington, D.C. in late August. Now that I’ve retired from teaching journalism at West Virginia University, I have felt increasingly isolated in the Mountain State, far from family and the excitement of living near a large urban center. When we raised our boys in a suburb of Boston, I was only 20 minutes away from the theater district, good restaurants and a major airport, and little more than an hour from the restorative waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Don’t get me wrong, I love the natural beauty and mountains of West Virginia — the views can be breathtaking! — but it takes me an 1 1/2 hours to get to a decent airport and what nightlife there is is geared to college students, Morgantown being a college town. It takes me 20 minutes by car to get to the closest supermarket and the Mon River bike trail and 25 minutes to an aquatic center, where I like to swim laps. All that driving drives me crazy, especially with the soaring gas prices these days.
While there are plenty of woodland trails near my home, I find myself hankering to see and talk with people on my daily constitutionals. Even in the best of weather, I hardly ever bump into neighbors on the trails or road where I live. When I recently spent several weeks in D.C. — to test the waters so to speak — I saw lots of people on my walks around the city, on the Metro, and in the eateries and shops. The public swimming pool in Eastern Market was 10 minutes from my hotel and it will be even closer to the apartment I have rented for the year. Did you know that for D.C. residents, the public pools are free? That’s an unheard-of-idea in West Virginia, which has among the highest rates of obesity and cancer deaths in the nation. The Mountain State also has the highest rate of opioid overdoses in the country, an unhappy distinction it has held since shortly after I moved to West Virginia 10 years ago.
The state has other gargantuan public health problems — a stubbornly low rate of vaccinations to keep COVID at bay and a disturbingly high rate of deaths by firearm, mostly suicides. Yet its politicians keep loosening gun restrictions and cutting funding for health care, education and child protection services. At the same time, they always seem to find money to support the fossil fuel industry and keep expensive coal-powered electric plants in operation when it would be cheaper to close them and rely on other energy sources such as natural gas, wind or solar power. And just a few weeks ago, after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, West Virginia closed its last remaining abortion clinic in Charleston. The Republicans who control state government say they want to encourage people, especially young professionals, to move to West Virginia; don’t they realize they are doing everything possible to discourage such migration?
I don’t like to think that West Virginians deserve what they get based on who they vote for, but I have grown tired of living in a state that routinely votes against its own self-interests and seems determined to hold onto every stereotype attached to Appalachia. I want to live in an area that doesn’t resist change but embraces it and welcomes people of all races and ethnicities. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed getting to know many wonderful West Virginians and I certainly plan to come back and visit friends and family in the Mountain State. But it’s time for me to move on and begin a new adventure in a city of endless possibilities.
This blog is also posted on medium.com.
