Hard Road of Hope

Eleanor Goldfield

Resource colony, sacrifice zone, just a throwaway opioid state full of Trumpers and hillbillies...right? Yes, West Virginia is home to pain, suffering, oppression, corruption and bigotry – you know, so unlike the rest of the country. But much more than a microcosm of our agony, West Virginia is an example of radical resolve. Proud rednecks, the people here are still fighting and building in the hills and hollers; working to connect their past to a broken present and the potential future that we all share. It's a Hard Road of Hope, a pot-holed, precarious and puddled path past the Kings of coal and gas, but they keep walking. We would do well to walk with them for a while – and listen.